The Best Promise
by idolR21
Summary: Sans never cared for anything except Papyrus and science. When he meets Frisk, the seventh human to fall underground, he begins to shed his aloof mask and realizes how much Frisk has to teach him about hope and love. [COMPLETE]
1. Chapter 1

Frisk took one step outside of the ruins. The mysterious door, embedded with the mysterious Deltarune, had swung open before her eyes. Suddenly a rush of cold, dry air hit her skin. She was only wearing a striped shirt and shorts, but she didn't feel too cold. Her eyes tried to focus on the scene outside, but they were met with a pure sheet of white, and then brown lines started filling in both sides of her view.

She walked. It was eerily quiet, and nothing was in her way aside from a lone stick. Cautiously, Frisk began to walk along the white path, the only thing marking her way the tall, brown trees on both sides of the path. She felt like she was being watched.

Frisk whipped around but saw no trace of anything following her. The only footsteps behind her were her own and there was no indication that anyone had run off into the woods. She continued to walk. In the distance, a structure started to form. It seemed like an arch, leading to a bridge. Someone must have built this here, she figured. She was getting closer to civilization. She heard footsteps.

"Human. Don't you know how to greet a pal? Turn around and face me."

Frisk was filled with fear. She did the only thing she could do: she turned around. In front of her was a skeleton with a blue jacket, holding his hand out. She extended her hand, only to be met with the sensation of rubber and a raspberry noise.

It was a whoopee cushion.

The skeleton chuckled.

Frisk knew immediately she was going to be in for a time. Whether good or bad, was yet to be determined.

* * *

A human, Sans thought. It has been a while since something exciting happened in Snowdin. I could have a little fun with this.

It had been two years since the last human came to the Underground. Sans tried his hardest to protect the humans, as he had made a promise to the woman in the Ruins all those years ago. Each time, however, they would go to Asgore to try to kill him and break free.

They all failed.

All humans are the same. They would wander through the Underground, and upon learning they had to kill to escape, would not hesitate to draw blood. None of them were a match for Asgore however, who had slain all six humans that had fallen through. In the end, Sans failed to protect these humans, who tried to leave of their own will.

Asgore only needed one more human. One more and the monsters could break free from this prison and plan their revenge against humanity. Sans, however, couldn't care less about getting to the surface. He knew there was no point.

Everything was going to be reset one way or the other.

As soon as Sans laid his eyes on this forsaken human, he knew she was the one. The one who had been resetting the timeline. Had he not made his promise to that woman, he would have slain the human as soon as they stepped outside of the door.

Sans realized his opportunity.

The opportunity… to mess with both this human AND his brother at the same time. Sans saw the fear in the human's eyes. She would do whatever he said. He explained to the human how his brother was a human-hunter and that she should show face to his brother because that would make his day.

The human complied with Sans. She went through all his puzzles, agreed with everything Papyrus said, and even acknowledged his spaghetti. Sans watched the human interact with his brother from a distance. Papyrus seemed to be having the time of his life. He had never seen his brother this happy before. The other humans that had passed through Snowdin always hid from the monsters on their way to the capital. But this human… was very different. Even after she encountered a monster, she refused to fight. She had accumulated zero execution points, which Sans thought strange. Usually, a human would accidentally kill one or two monsters out of fear and gain at least a few EXP. But Frisk… had none.

Sans observed from afar. The human had gotten through all of Papyrus's puzzles and was reaching Snowdin. How would she react to seeing all the monsters? Would she run? Hide? Attack? Sans readied himself for an attack, preparing himself for the worst.

The human went through town as if she was a resident of Snowdin town. She talked to everyone, went in and out of each building, and even purchased items from the store. No weapons in hand. Just cinnamon buns and a new bandana.

She looked cute.

Sans was startled by himself. How could he find a human cute? Either way, it didn't matter to him, as this human was going to perish as soon as she reached the end of the cave. He had given Frisk advice on how to fight his brother. Sans was convinced Frisk had no intention of harming anyone, seeing how she has treated all monsters thus far. Still zero EXP.

Frisk approached the end of Snowdin town. Sans trailed behind, observing her every move. In the midst of the blizzard, Papyrus's silhouette came into view.

Frisk's actions here would determine Sans's next moves.

* * *

She couldn't see. All Frisk felt was ice hitting her arms and legs, but again, strangely, she did not shiver. Suddenly, the familiar silhouette of the puzzle-maker gradually appeared. She stopped in front of him. Papyrus seemed conflicted about fighting Frisk. She could tell how much her presence really made an impact on him. Frisk thought Papyrus would spare her, but he suddenly realized he still needed her to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a member of the Royal Guard. Papyrus was such an innocent skeleton with a simple dream. She really admired how dedicated he was to his dream. Frisk never had any dreams of her own, she was just living in the human world and going with the flow, not knowing where her life would take her.

Where did life take her? It took her in front of a pretty cool dude.

Frisk told Papyrus she really admired his determination to his cause, all while dodging his attacks and never fighting back.

"W-what? Did you just tell me… you admire me?" Papyrus seemed flustered. "You're flirting with me!"

Frisk was caught off-guard. She wasn't flirting, she was just telling him how much she admired him. She realized Papyrus had probably never been flirted with before and didn't know what flirting actually was like.

"Well, I have very high standards!" Papyrus said.

To try and discourage him from flirting with her, she told him she had no redeeming qualities, which had the opposite effect. Papyrus told her that she met all his standards.

I'm not trying to flirt with this skeleton, Frisk thought. I'll try insulting him to get him off my back. The insult also had the opposite effect that Frisk intended. Papyrus thought Frisk was masking her feelings for him. Oh boy. Frisk sighed and decided she would play along.

Frisk flawlessly dodged all of Papyrus's attacks. He was getting tired. Eventually, Papyrus decided to spare Frisk and their long battle finally ended.

The blizzard cleared. Papyrus seemed dejected at the fact that he would never be able to capture a human, become a member of the Royal Guard, or have any friends. Frisk felt bad for the skeleton for only wanting to chase his dreams.

"Listen Papyrus," Frisk said. "You don't have to be a member of the Royal Guard to have friends. I'll be your friend."

Papyrus perked up. "R-really?" He spoke between sobs. "That does it human! You must really like me! Listen, if you really want to have that date, stop by my house! We can hang out and spend some time together! Nyeh heh heh!" Papyrus ran off back to Snowdin.

The path was clear in front of Frisk. Frisk could have continued to look for a way out of the ruins, but she thought, why the hell not? And made her way back towards Sans and Papyrus's house.


	2. Chapter 2

Sans couldn't believe it.

The human was flirting with Papyrus.

He felt a strange wave of jealousy overcome him. Papyrus seemed so happy and asked Frisk out on a date. Sans knew though, that humans' priority would be to get out of the Underground. He had seen it six times before. Frisk would go off and he would never see her again.

To his surprise, Frisk turned around and went back to Snowdin towards their house. Frisk was going to go on a date with his brother. Sans was happy for Papyrus. Maybe she would make him really happy. She already did as his friend. If it worked out, Papyrus would have a girlfriend. Sans's heart sank.

Frisk met Papyrus back at their house. Papyrus took off, Frisk following closely behind him. As soon as the two left, Sans went back to his room. He kicked off his socks and threw them in the mountain across from his door. Why couldn't he stop thinking about Frisk? She looked adorable in that bandana. She purposely avoided fighting anyone she encountered. Frisk emanated empathy during her fight with Papyrus. Frisk wanted Papyrus to be happy, just like Sans did.

Sans told himself to snap out of it. Frisk was a human. He was a monster. A relationship between them would never work out anyway. Frisk seemed like a better match for his brother anyway.

Sans wasn't new to dating. He had dated quite a few of the monsters in the Underground, but none of them were ever serious. A fling or two here and there, but zero attachment. Sans figured none of these relationships would matter in the end anyway after the timelines were reset. All the girls he had dated were the same: ditzy, clueless, empty girls with nothing going for them besides their bodies. He longed to meet someone who could level with him in intelligent conversation and not only laugh at his bad puns. But he accepted a long time ago that he would never meet a girl who could have intelligent conversation with him.

He heard the front door open. He was confused. He thought Papyrus had taken Frisk out on a date. Why were they back in the house? He heard Papyrus's voice through his door.

"Welcome to my house! This is where I love spending most of my time. It's the most special place to me so… I hope you enjoy it!" Sans didn't need to open the door to know that Papyrus was beaming. He took her home already? Damn, Sans thought. Papyrus got Frisk to his house in 5 minutes. That's faster than I've ever gotten any girl to go home with me.

Sans locked his door. He didn't want either of them to try and go inside his room and say hi. It would hurt too much. But why? Why was he having such strong feelings for Frisk? He had never felt anything like this with any monsters he had dated before. He never cared to. To him, women had been a source of entertainment, something to pursue when he was bored. When the excitement was done, it was like he never had dated them. Even after he broke it off, the girls would continue to come back to him to try and date or sleep with him. He continued to ghost them anyway.

There was a knock on the door. Sans whipped around but didn't walk toward the door. Once this date was over, Frisk would leave, and Asgore would slay her. Then Sans would continue on with his life as before and forget these feelings ever existed.

"So," Sans heard Papyrus say through the door. "Do you wanna go in my room and… uh… do whatever it is people do when they date?"

That was it. Papyrus had gotten her, Sans thought. If she steps into his room, Frisk is going to sleep with him. The jealousy grew even more. He heard Papyrus's door close. Frisk was in there. Sans unlocked his door and stepped out of the house. He didn't want to hear anything or see them after their date was over. He took his usual shortcut to Waterfall.

Frisk was led to Sans and Papyrus's house. It was kind of adorable that Papyrus's favorite place was his own home. She could certainly relate, as she adored the comfort of her own home. She got homesick.

Papyrus asked Frisk if she was alright. She told him that she missed home and would love to go back soon. Her family and friends must have been worried sick.

"So do you… have many friends?" Papyrus probed. "Like how many?" Frisk told him that she didn't know how many friends she had as she never thought to count, but that she loved and cared for each of them more than she cared about herself.

"That's amazing," Papyrus replied. "You're not even famous or a Royal Guard member, and you have so many friends! I wish I could be like you!"

"Papyrus," Frisk replied. "You don't have to be famous or a Royal Guard member. It doesn't even matter how many people are your friends. I find that the quality of your friendships is way more important than how many you have."

"Wow! I never thought of that! I do have Undyne, she's an amazing friend. She's definitely worth more than 100 friends combined!"

Frisk laughed. Papyrus wasn't a bad guy at all. It seemed like none of the monsters in the Underground were. She was never one to fight regardless, but seeing how happy Papyrus was and how much Sans cared for his brother filled her with determination.

The two of them continued the date in Papyrus's room. They joked around, complimented each other, and she even tried some of his spaghetti. It was absolutely horrid, but seeing how much work Papyrus put into making the spaghetti made her fake a smile just a little bit. Frisk really admired Papyrus's attitude and how positively he was able to spin every situation.

"Listen human…" Papyrus then said solemnly. "I have a confession to make. I don't think I feel the same way about you that you feel about me." Frisk was taken aback. Wasn't he the one that asked her out on a date? Sure, she didn't really feel any romantic feelings towards Papyrus, but was still confused by this nonetheless. "I thought that since you flirted with me, that I had to ask you on a date, and I would naturally grow romantic feelings toward you, but I have none! Isn't that horrible! I led you on… how dare I do that such a good friend…"

Frisk comforted the now weeping skeleton. She told him that this was the point of dating, to figure out whether or not they want to continue dating that person – or monster – in the future. She reassured him that he did everything right during the date and that he came to the conclusion that he did not want to continue dating her, and that was okay.

Papyrus thanked Frisk for her kind words. He vowed that at least if they were not to become boyfriend and girlfriend, that they would continue to be friends. Frisk told Papyrus that that would make her happy. Papyrus beamed again. He gave her his phone number and told her to give him a call if she ever wanted to talk to him.

Frisk left Papyrus's house, still confused by the encounter, but felt fulfilled, nonetheless. She had made a new friend. A skeleton friend. Up on the surface, schools taught all about the monster/human war and would emphasize how savage and hostile the monsters in the Underground were. Why had she taken that dare to climb mount Ebott? She wasn't sure. Perhaps she wanted more excitement in her life, and she had gotten her wish.

At first, she thought she was going to die. She was so sure that the first monster she encountered would eviscerate her and that she would never see her family or friends ever again. She was right: the first monster she was a horrible flower that tried to kill her, but she was saved by Toriel. And now she even got to meet Papyrus and Sans. Her fear evaporated thinking of all the great monsters she had met.

Papyrus had given her directions to the Capital, where the barrier was. She was human, so she would be able to pass through the barrier, right? The hope of going hope to her family and friends filled her with determination, and she set off to Waterfall.


	3. Chapter 3

Sans stood at the sentry station in Waterfall, staring up at the crystalized ceiling. He hoped his brother was happy. He had finally seen Papyrus get his first date, but the feeling was bittersweet. If the human truly enjoyed the date, she would stay, and he would continue to have to see both of them together all the time, when he just wanted to forget about her. He took a swig of ketchup.

In the distance, Sans saw the outline of a familiar human cut through the blizzard. Was that Frisk? Didn't she have that date with Papyrus? He had so many questions, but mostly, he did not want to see that same outline leave in the other direction, away from the Underground. To his surprise, Frisk happily strolled up to the sentry station, and asked how he was doing and why he was in Waterfall.

"What? Never seen someone with two jobs before?" Sans joked, trying to ease his pain with humor. "Listen. I've got a break coming up. Wanna head to Grillby's with me?" Half of Sans wanted Frisk to say no, and continue with her journey, so that she could leave, and he could forget about her. The other half wanted to keep her near him as long as possible.

"What is this, another skeleton date?" Frisk laughed. Sans turned red and attempted to recover.

"Date-schmate," Sans replied. "I ain't paying for you." Frisk laughed again and agreed to go with Sans to Grillby's. Sans felt immense joy upon hearing her laugh and told Frisk that he knew a shortcut back to Snowdin.

"But… that's the opposite direction." Frisk said. "Snowdin is that way." Sans winked and told Frisk to trust him.

When Frisk opened her eyes, she was at Grillby's. What? She thought. I could have sworn Snowdin was a ten-minute walk in the opposite direction. She strolled in by Sans' side. She watched Sans greet every single person in the bar. Sans is such a people-person, Frisk thought. He really does get along with everyone.

As soon as Sans walked into the bar, his eyesockets widened. Three of his ex-girlfriends were in the bar. Fuck, Sans thought. Of course, the time I bring Frisk not one, not two, but three ex-girlfriends are in here.

"Sansy~" A high-pitched voice said from across the bar It belonged to a bunny with a tight shirt. "Did you come here to visit little old me?"

"No dumbass," An equally pitched voice from another bunny retorted. "He's here to see me~"

"Obviously," A third bunny's voice cut through the other ones. "Sans is here for me~"

Shit, Sans thought. They're gonna do this right now? Sans heard Frisk laughing behind him. "I always knew you were a ladies' man." The embarrassment on Sans' face grew. "Sorry Frisk," Sans said. "I just gotta dissolve this…" Sans walked to the table with the three bunnies.

Frisk watched as the three bunnies flirted and joked with Sans. She was not surprised that Sans was popular with girls, as any girl would be a sucker for his aloofness and jokes. She sat at the bar, waiting for Sans.

"That Sans," A monster made of fire said to himself as he was cleaning a glass. "Always causing trouble for the women in town. But I don't mind. Makes them all come in here and drink after a night with him!" The fire monster cackled. Frisk was confused. Sans didn't seem like the womanizer type. Oh, she thought. I guess he wouldn't flirt with me, since I'm not like any of the other girls Sans seems to be flirting with. She got sad.

Wait. Why did she care?

Sans strolled back toward the bar and sat down next to Frisk.

"Sorry about that," Sans said. "I really tried to end it with them. But they won't leave me alone."

"You tried to end it with all three of them on the same day!" Grillby cackled.

"Fuck you, Grillby." Sans shot back. Grillby continued to spurt flames as he chortled while cleaning the counters. Frisk laughed along with Grillby.

"You really are a heartbreaker, aren't you Sans." Frisk said while smiling. Sans wanted to sink into his hoodie. That wasn't the image he wanted to give Frisk on their first time hanging out. Sans motioned for a bottle of ketchup. Or two. Or four.

"Speaking of heartbreaking," Sans said. "What about your date with Papyrus? What happened?"

Frisk laughed nervously. She explained that she thought the date was going well, but that Papyrus ended up friend zoning her. Which she found kind of humorous, since she didn't really have any romantic feelings for him anyway.

"So, you led my brother on?" Sans raised an eyebrow at her. Frisk vehemently denied it, saying that Papyrus kind of led her on as well. She laughed. Her and Papyrus really did seem like two peas in a pod. She would miss him when she left.

Sans had never seen anyone care as much about Papyrus as he did. The more Frisk talked about Papyrus, the more Sans felt how genuine Frisk was. She only wanted him to be happy, which is what Sans wanted for Papyrus as well. Sans thanked Frisk for going on a date with Papyrus and doing all of his puzzles. He had never seen Papyrus this happy before.

The conversation continued. They talked about a lot of things. Her life on the surface, her friends and family, and how bored she had gotten living her day-to-day life up there. Sans confessed to her that he felt the same way about life in the Underground. That he would do certain things purely out of boredom, and some things he admits he regrets.

"When I first fell to the Underground," Frisk said. "I was so scared. I thought I was going to die. I was away from my friends and family and so far from home. I never regretted taking that dare to climb the mountain more than I did in that moment. But I don't regret it anymore. Because I got to meet amazing people like Papyrus. And you."

Sans' heart pounded. Was Frisk really saying this to him? The skeleton she just saw doing damage control to the girls he used and led on? His feelings for her grew more than ever before. But he knew they weren't a good match. She was too good for him. Frisk deserved much more than a pun-cracking skeleton.

Frisk felt feelings develop in her too. Sans reminded her a lot of herself. They were the same: both wanting more excitement in life but ultimately feeling unfulfilled. When Frisk fell, she started feeling an emotion she had never felt before: determination. This determination was slowly wiping away all her feelings of boredom. Sans and Frisk smiled at each other for a moment. Frisk was slowly falling for the skeleton the more they talked. A high-pitched voice cut through this tender moment.

"Sansy~" The bunny said, approaching Sans and Frisk with the clear intent to flirt. The bunny took one look at frisk and then looked smug. "Don't tell me you're here with a human. Don't you know you could do so much better? You've got me~ Don't tell me you forgot all about our moment under the crystals in Waterfall… How the echo flowers were repeating every sound we made…"

Sans was horrified. Frisk's demeanor changed. She couldn't have feelings for Sans. She would never be exciting enough for him. She was a boring human, just trying to get home. Sans had all the girls in the Underground for him. Why would he waste time on a human like her? Frisk felt a lump in her throat. She wanted to get out of there fast. She excused herself, saying she really had to get home and that her family was worried about her. She thanked Sans for the conversation and told him to have fun. She walked toward the door.

Sans tried to run after her, but the three bunnies pulled him back. He wanted to explain himself. He wanted nothing more than to tell Frisk that she was the reason he was having fun. He never enjoyed talking to anyone else more in his life than his time with Frisk. Her outline left his view, the one thing he feared.

"Good riddance," The bunny said. "Humans are disgusting. I hope Asgore rips her to shreds, piece by piece." The other two bunnies started laughing.

Sans' left eye began to glow.

In a flash, bones rained down on the three bunnies, pinning them to the wall.

"Don't ever fucking come here ever again."

A trail of blue smoke followed Sans as he exited Grillby's.


	4. Chapter 4

Frisk felt tears well up in her eyes as she made her way through Waterfall. She couldn't look up as the crystals on the ceiling kept reminding her of what Sans and the bunny had done. She couldn't look down or ahead because she kept seeing echo flowers and imagined Sans and bunny moaning. It was invading her thoughts.

I need to get my mind off of this, she thought. She took out her cellphone and called Papyrus.

"Hello human! You're in Waterfall right now! I sure do love the crystal ceilings and the echo flowers-" Frisk cut him off. Papyrus heard her sobbing through the phone. "Are… are you alright Frisk?" Frisk responded no. Papyrus said he would be over right away, and to stay where she was.

Frisk sat down on a bench, where noticed there was a quiche on the ground underneath. She stared at the quiche. The echo flower next to the bench kept repeating, "I wasn't ready for the responsibility… I wasn't ready…"

The echo flower was right. She wasn't ready for anything. Up until now, the Underground filled her with good memories and new friends. Instead, she felt inadequate. She wanted nothing more than to get back to the surface and resume her normal life. She wanted to forget about the Underground and the pain she felt at Grillby's. Sans would never like her and could never like her. He was a skeleton and she was a human.

 _Painful, isn't it._ Frisk heard a familiar voice. _You do all you can to care for and spend time with another person… Only to realize it would be better if you never met them at all. You should channel that pain. No one down here matters. This world… it's kill or be killed._

The echo flower repeated the last line over and over.

Frisk whipped around. She swore she heard that flower from the ruins. Where did that come from? In the distance, she heard a trousle of bones approach the bench.

"Papyrus," Frisk exclaimed. "Did you hear a creepy voice just now?" Papyrus told her that he didn't hear anything and that she must have been imagining things. Frisk shuddered and tried to shake off the thoughts that were running in her head.

"Tell me what's wrong, Frisk. I'm here for you." Papyrus said. Frisk's feelings came spurting out. She confessed to Papyrus that she started having feelings for Sans, but that she knew she wasn't the best person for him, as she was boring. She told him of what happened with Sans and the three bunnies.

Papyrus thought back to when he saw Sans earlier that day, after he went to Grillby's. Sans seemed frustrated about something. His left eye was glowing, which only occurs during battle or during intense emotions. He hadn't seen Sans use his powers in a very long time. Papyrus continued to listen to Frisk. He wondered how Sans felt about this whole situation. Papyrus asked Frisk what she planned to do next.

"I think I should leave," Frisk said through tears. "I don't belong here. I'm a human. I belong up in the human world, with my family. I need to get moving." Frisk wiped her tears away and smiled. She thanked Papyrus for listening to her and letting her vent about the situation.

"No need to thank me," Papyrus said. "I am only doing what a friend would do. Besides, it makes sense that you would fall for Sans… Because he is my brother! Since I rejected you, you shifted your feelings to the next closest thing: him! Nyeh heh heh!" Frisk laughed hard. Papyrus felt happy seeing her smile. "Frisk… I am going to miss you. You taught me a lot. You're one of my dearest friends. I won't try to stop you from leaving but… Before you go, please make sure you say goodbye, ok? And not just to me. To Sans too." Frisk agreed that she would not leave the Underground without saying goodbye to the two brothers. "Excellent! Well then, before I go, I shall give you some Papyrus-patented advice for your journey!" Papyrus's face suddenly became serious.

"Listen. You'll probably come face-to-face with Undyne sometime soon. I'm sure you've heard the stories. A monster that absorbs seven human souls will have enough power to break the barrier. Undyne is trying to hunt down humans to deliver to Asgore so we can break free. Please don't attack Undyne. She is just doing what she thinks is right. I know there has to be some way to break the barrier without resorting to violence. I have a feeling you'll be the one to figure it out. Good luck, Frisk."

Frisk listened to Papyrus's bones shuffle away. The feeling of confiding in a friend filled her with determination, and she set off toward Undyne.

* * *

Sans's eye was still glowing.

It hadn't stopped glowing since Grillby's yesterday. He hadn't slept or eaten since the day before and locked himself in his room. Embarrassment and anger ran through Sans as his eye continued to glow indeterminately. Frisk must have thought he was some sort of womanizer, and unable to have true feelings. He wanted the bunnies to exit his life like he intended when he broke up with them.

Smoke was seeping in underneath Sans' door and the smell of burnt spaghetti filled the house. Sans was already pissed, and this smoke and spaghetti set him off even more. His blue eye brightened.

"What the fuck Papyrus!" Sans screamed from his bedroom. He heard laughter. Sans stormed downstairs to the kitchen, where he found Undyne and Papyrus laughing together while making spaghetti.

"Someone woke up with a stick in their asshole," Undyne chortled. "Looks like embarrassment isn't something Sans can get PAST-a!" Undyne and Papyrus howled with laughter. Sans flipped off the cooking duo and plopped on the couch. "Wow. I would think you'd appreciate a pun. What the hell happened to you Sans?"

"Why the hell are you here, Undyne." Sans mumbled.

"Well," Undyne said, flipping her spear. "I made a new friend… And then we burned my house down! Ha ha ha!" Undyne was awfully chipper for someone whose house had just burnt down. Sans normally didn't mind Undyne and Papyrus's antics, but he was so annoyed already that he was not having it. "Papyrus said I could stay here for a couple days while the fire dies down."

"Tell Sans about your new friend, Undyne!" Papyrus said while stirring a pot of burnt pasta.

Undyne began to tell the duo all about the battle she had. She spoke of how her opponent kept dodging her attacks and ran away into Hotland. Admiration poured through Undyne as she spoke of how brilliant it was that her opponent led her to the one place in the Underground that she couldn't fight in. And even after all that, the human had mercy on Undyne and splashed a cup of water on her after she saw her immobilized on the bridge into Hotland.

Wait. A human?

"Are you talking… about Frisk?" Sans said curiously.

"YES! Exactly! I love that girl." Undyne continued. She spoke of how Frisk had come back to Undyne's house to hang out. At first Undyne felt embarrassed that the person who had bested her in combat was now asking to hang out, but after giving Frisk a chance, they had the most fun time cooking together.

Undyne continued to talk about how she had misjudged Frisk when she first met her. She thought about how her bias of humans almost caused her to destroy a now good friend. Their cooking hangout was one of the most fun she had ever had, and she had gone along willingly with whatever Undyne told her to do. Undyne could tell Frisk was having fun hanging out with her.

Sans wanted to stop listening but couldn't. Any mention of Frisk made his heart skip a beat. Even to Undyne, someone who had almost killed her, Frisk showed kindness and mercy. Her best traits shone through by the way she treated other people. He was really falling for this human.

And then he remembered that he was the worst match for her.

Sans' eye got brighter again, and he retreated to his room without eating.


	5. Chapter 5

Papyrus watched his brother shuffle up the stairs. Could it be that Sans had feelings for the human as well? It seemed that the incident that occurred at Grillby's deeply affected Sans. Frisk had told Papyrus she had feelings for Sans but thought that she would have no shot with Sans because she was not like the other girls Sans had dated before. Sans, on the other hand, seemed to be seething of embarrassment since the Grillby's incident. Papyrus found this strange, as he had seen his brother in similar situations that that but had never cared so much about it. In fact, it was strange to see his brother even really caring at all.

"Is it just me," Undyne said. "Or does Sans seem a little… off?" Papyrus agreed. Usually, Sans would crack a few puns here or there, sleep on the couch while Undyne and Papyrus hung out or would be at Grillby's for an indefinite amount of time, flirting with girls or talking to Grillby. However, Sans hadn't been to Grillby's in two days or even left the house. Papyrus was starting to get worried.

"I agree," Papyrus said, washing his hands of spaghetti sauce. "I'm going to go upstairs and try to talk to him. Stir the noodles for me?" With a menacing look, Undyne hissed "gladly", and began to pound the noodles with the tip of her spear.

Papyrus made his way to the second floor of their house. The usual colorful glow beneath Sans' door was gone and replaced by a steady blue light. Sans's powers still haven't calmed down have they, Papyrus thought. He must be really upset by what happened. Papyrus knocked on the door.

"Brother?" Papyrus spoke through the door. "It's Papyrus. I have made spaghetti! Will you let me in?" No response. Papyrus tried knocking again, but he could hear no movement behind the door. He decided he would try again later when the door suddenly swung open. Papyrus took one step inside. The room was dark and empty. Another one of Sans tricks. "Brother please, turn off this ending darkness. I would like to speak with you."

Sans's room came into view. The only thing lighting up the room was Sans' left eye. He was rolled up into his sheets, staring at the wall. His room was messy as ever, but it seemed a little worse than usual. Instead of a sock mountain, there seemed to be a sock continent in the corner. The spaghetti tornado that was usually in his room had died down, leaving spaghetti-stained carnage in its wake.

"Sans," Papyrus started. "Are you ok? Your eye hasn't stopped glowing in three days. Please brother if there is something the matter talk to me. I am here."

Sans usually wasn't one to talk about his deep feelings. He had maintained this persona of a skeleton with no cares for years. Deep down, he really did care about things, a lot. He cared about his brother, quantum physics, and his friends. But now, he cared about Frisk and it was showing. And that embarrassed the hell out of Sans.

He decided to confide in his brother. He told the story of Grillby's from his perspective. The three bunnies had all come together at the same time, right when Sans was about to hang out with Frisk at Grillby's. They had all started to talk to Sans at once, so he tried to handle the bunnies on his own and sent Frisk to the bar so that the bunnies wouldn't bother her. He segued into talking about the amazing conversations the two of them had. They were so alike and had similar views on a lot of different things. Sans had even started getting into quantum physics with her, and even though she didn't understand it, was listening attentively to him and even asked him intelligent questions that prompted him to talk more. No girl he had ever known was interested in quantum physics aside from Alphys. The three bunnies then came over to tease him once more, and he told Papyrus how one of them started describing the time they had hooked up with Sans in Waterfall. Sans' eye glowed more upon the slight recollection of that part of the story. The only thing etched in his mind was Frisk's face of disappointment and shame that she had been spending time with a heartless womanizer.

Papyrus, however, knew the truth: that Frisk was upset because she thought Sans could never love her. Sans was 100% in love with Frisk, and Papyrus knew it. He had never seen Sans so hung up on a girl before. Most of Sans's dates were short-lived flings or girls to sleep with. Papyrus was always disappointed in how Sans had treated girls in the past but felt like his brother was going through a powerful and painful change for the better. He decided to help Sans and Frisk end up together.

"Brother," Papyrus said, placing his hand on his brother's back. "First of all, you and I both know that Frisk would not stop being friends with you just because she thinks you're a womanizer, which, you kind of have been, but you know she's not like that. She has been super nice and genuine to each of us. Even Undyne! And Undyne tried to kill her! If Frisk can become friends with the hunter Undyne, then she will still be friends with a womanizing skeleton." Sans rolled his eyes. "Unless…"

"Unless… what?" Sans replied, puzzled.

"Brother, have you fallen for this human?"

Sans turned bright red. His eye glowed more fiercely than ever. His mouth spouted denials and accusations. Sans tried his best to hide his feelings, but he was caught. Papyrus saw straight through him. He tried to hide under his bed, but he knew Papyrus was smirking in the darkness.

"I knew it!" Papyrus jumped up and down with joy. "Oh brother, Frisk is wonderful, isn't she? I know that after a date with me, you may pale in comparison, but I support this 100%!"

"No." Sans cut Papyrus off. "You're not 'supporting' anything. I'm not trying to date her. She's a human and I'm a skeleton. We wouldn't be a good match anyway. She doesn't want anything to do with me. And besides. She's leaving to go back to the surface, where she belongs. Even if she… did like me… I don't want her to not go back up just because of me. Just… let me forget about her Paps." Sans rolled over back into his bed, which was Papyrus's signal to leave.

Papyrus was resolved to try and get Frisk and Sans to confess to each other. He knew that Frisk wanted to go back up to the surface but did not want her to leave without any regrets. He descended to the first floor, where Undyne was fanning burnt noodles.

"So," Undyne asked. "What's wrong with him? Did Grillby get his order wrong or something." Papyrus nodded no and began to explain that Sans was upset because he had embarrassed himself in front of Frisk. He told Undyne a basic summary of what Sans had told him and then told her what Frisk had said about Sans as well. Papyrus swore he saw a sparkle in her eye after hearing about this.

"You know what that means!" Undyne proclaimed. She took her spear, stabbed it into Sans and Papyrus's kitchen table, and jumped heroically up on top. "It's a new challenge! To get Frisk! And Sans! TOGETHER!" Papyrus agreed, and they both started howling in laughter brainstorming ideas to get the two of them to confess. Upstairs, Sans sat in complete darkness, with nothing but the glow of his left eye to keep him company.


	6. Chapter 6

So hot… Frisk thought. No wonder Undyne collapsed, I'm a human and I can barely stand this heat. Frisk was still wearing her long-sleeve striped sweater. Luckily, she was wearing shorts. She tied her hair back but sweat was still pouring down the sides of her face. It was awfully humid and sticky. She just needed a place to breathe. In the distance, a large building came into view. Air conditioning, Frisk thought. That place must have air conditioning! She mustered all her strength to get herself to the door of the lab.

The doors opened automatically, and Frisk stepped into the cold, dark lab. She immediately felt relief from the heavy atmosphere outside but began to shiver as the lab was such a drastic change in temperature. On the screen to her left, she saw a video of herself. What? Frisk thought. Why am I on the screen? Someone was watching her. She quickly realized the shivers were not from the cold, but from the feeling of being watched.

The lights turned on. Frisk panicked and hid under the desk with the computer. From the elevator, she could hear footsteps getting closer and closer. Whatever it was, it was approaching the desk. It tried to sit down but its foot kicked Frisk in the face.

"Oh my gosh oh my gosh!" The figure spoke. Frisk emerged from the desk and saw a yellow lizard with a lab coat. Frisk was terrified. "No no no no, don't be scared! I'm… I'm Alphys!"

Frisk studied Alphys. She did not seem to be a danger at all. In fact, it seemed like Alphys was more scared of Frisk than Frisk was of Alphys. The scientist was much shorter than Frisk, which she was surprised at, as Papyrus and Undyne both towered over her. Even Sans was taller than her, and he seemed short for a monster. Frisk told Alphys not to be nervous and that she wasn't going to hurt her. She was just trying to find her way out of the Underground and get back to the surface.

Alphys calmed down a bit. She stated that she knew, as she had been watching Frisk since she stepped out of the ruins. She had seen her encounters with both Papyrus and Undyne and saw that she spared both. Alphys stated that she didn't think Frisk was dangerous after seeing that, but that she was on her guard anyway. Frisk then asked for advice on how to get out of the Underground. She stated that Papyrus had told her that someone with a strong soul would be able to cross the barrier, and that Papyrus believed that Frisk's soul was strong enough to cross on her own. Alphys started sweating.

"W-well," Alphys stuttered. "Before I tell you that, I need to uh… warn you about the robot I created…" Alphys then began to speak of the human-killing robot that she accidentally programmed to appease Asgore and assist him with collecting the seven human souls. She explained how she became the Royal Scientist and took over after W.D. Gaster, the previous Royal Scientist, had gone missing. "You may have to uhh… get past Mettaton if you want to get out of the Underground alive… But please.. Don't kill him!" Frisk and Alphys heard a crash through the wall. There was Mettaton, poised with a microphone and ready to attack any human on sight.

* * *

"And now," The TV bellowed. "It's time for MTT hour!" Sans was slumped down on the couch while Undyne and Papyrus were intently watching the TV.

"My favorite show!" Papyrus exclaimed. "I'm so excited! I've been waiting all day for this!"

"Me too," Undyne said. "Alphys said she was going to make a guest appearance in the show. I know she'll only have scheduled herself in as a background extra, but I'm really excited to see her on TV anyway! She'll be great!" Undyne and Papyrus were beaming with excitement in front of the TV. On the other side of the couch, was Sans, equally as annoyed with the commotion going on next to him. "HEY! Stop moping! You're ruining the mood!"

"Fuck off," Sans said. "You guys were the ones who dragged me down here. I just wanted to stay in my room."

"Brother," Papyrus said, slurping a whole bowl of spaghetti. "I'm not going to let you be sorry for yourself for the rest of your life! You're staying and spending time with the coolest skeleton around and the strongest member of the Royal Guard!"

"Fuck yeah!" Undyne screamed, stabbing her spear into the ground. Sans scolded Undyne for ruining their floor. "Whatever Sans! Let's just watch!"

The Mettaton show started after a minute and a half of the intro, all shots of Mettaton being adored by fans, singing during one of his concerts, and clips from his cooking show. Sans had watched this show before, it was nothing more than gimmicks and flashy scenes. It did not interest him at all. Then again, he had zero interest in much besides ketchup and quantum physics.

The show began. Mettaton's first skit was a quiz show. He announced a special guest was to appear on the show. In the next shot, was Frisk standing in what looked like Alphys's laboratory.

"What?!" Sans jumped up from his seat. "What the hell is Frisk doing on the Mettaton show?"

"Frisk," Undyne said. "Look at who's standing next to Mettaton! It's Alphys! She's actually a main character and she let herself be on TV not hiding in the background? I'm so proud of her!"

Fuck, Sans thought. I can't let Frisk get hurt. I have to do something! Sans started to concentrate to teleport himself, but was interrupted by Undyne.

"HEY!" Undyne screamed. "Where the hell do you think you're going? You're not leaving that easily! Stay here and hang out with us, asshole!" Sans tried to release himself from Undyne's grip, but he felt Papyrus's hand touch his shoulder.

"Please brother," Papyrus said seriously. "Please just spend some time with us. You haven't come out of your room in days. We just want to see you." Sans felt bad. Papyrus was right: he hadn't been paying attention to his brother because of what had happened. This is why he hated having feelings; he never knew how to deal with them. "Besides. Frisk handled both me and Undyne, the two strongest people in the Underground! She will be fine!" Sans realized Papyrus was right. Frisk would find some way to get through this without getting harmed herself. He sat back down, and kept his eyes glued on the TV.

Frisk answered every question of Mettaton's flawlessly. Sans got nervous as the questions became harder and harder, but Frisk seemed like she knew what she was doing and kept answering every question right. How is she doing that? Sans wondered. She really is amazing. She hasn't gotten hurt at all yet.

"That Alphys!" Undyne cackled. "She's giving Frisk the answers! Ha ha ha! Look at that Mettaton. He doesn't stand a chance against the two of them!"

Sans realized that Frisk had befriended Alphys as well. Alphys, who was the most shy and insecure monster in the whole Underground, had opened herself up to a human. Sans understood the weight Alphys bared from all the failed experiments in her secret laboratory. He had been there, watching the experiments go on, but doing nothing about it. In the end, Alphys's experiments were her blame. If only he had done something, anything, instead of just standing by and observing these experiments. He could have taken some of the blame too, and she wouldn't have been so affected by what had happened. Instead, he walked away and let Alphys go through all the pain by herself. He felt guilty.

Frisk had beaten the quiz show portion of the program. Papyrus and Undyne started cheering for Frisk as she continued to go through Mettaton's show. It was time for puzzles.

"OOH!" Papyrus said. "Puzzles! Frisk will have no problem beating these! She loves puzzles almost as much as I do!" Papyrus was right. Frisk solved every puzzle almost effortlessly. Sans was mesmerized watching Frisk in action. He swore he could see Papyrus in Frisk. She was using the skills she had gained from solving Papyrus's puzzles and using them to appease Mettaton. He couldn't take his eyes off the TV.

"Oh, here comes the finale!" Undyne said. In the final room, Mettaton stood on a platform across from Frisk. He looked as if he were ready to attack at anytime. Frisk distracted him and pulled the switch on his back. A flash of light appeared on the TV screen, with a very seductive "oh yes" echoing throughout the living room."

"What's happening?" Papyrus said. Sans got nervous. Had she failed. Did Mettaton blow her up. His eye started to glow but the screen flashed back to a new Mettaton body and Frisk standing across from him. "WHOA! Look at Mettaton. He's so… COOL!"

Mettaton started to attack Frisk. Sans was on the edge of his seat. He needed to be sure that Frisk was ok. His eyes were glued to the TV. Frisk dodged most of Mettaton's attacks, all while not attacking Mettaton at least once. Outside, Sans, Papyrus, and Undyne could hear all of Snowdin watching their TVs, talking about the Mettaton vs. Human fight. Sans checked his phone. He was getting so many texts from people asking if he was watching the fight. He didn't have the energy to reply to all of them, as he didn't want to miss one bit of the fight. He felt his non-existent heart pumping. He was so nervous. It seemed like Mettaton was not going to stop until Frisk was dead. Undyne was staring out the window.

"Look!" Undyne exclaimed. "Grillby set up a large screen for everyone to watch outside!" Sans and Papyrus were so glued to the TV that they couldn't hear Undyne. The battle was reaching its peak, and Sans was nervous as hell. All of a sudden, the TV started flashing a notice. The viewer count had reached 12,000. Mettaton stopped attacking.

"Yes!" Mettaton said. "This… is the most viewed episode of my show so far! We need to celebrate! Human. I'm putting this battle on hold. I'm going to take calls from viewers!"

Frisk was trembling. Was the battle finally over? Had she finally held it out long enough for Mettaton to stop the fight, and stop attacking her. She relaxed for a little bit, but kept herself ready for anything that might happen next.

Mettaton was taking calls from viewers. They were telling him all about how much they loved his show, and that they were looking forward to his next episode. People were telling him all about how they would watch his show if they were having a bad day, and that watching the show immediately made them feel happier. Mettaton looked overjoyed. Frisk swore that he would start crying if he had tear ducts.

"Hey Mettaton," A voice said through the phone. Frisk recognized the voice. Could it be? "Listen. I'm watching your show from my couch. And I usually never do. But I let my brother convince me. And even though this is the first time I'm seeing the show… It's really made me feel better." She knew it. Sans had called the show. But why? He didn't seem like a Mettaton fan. Another voice cut through the receiver.

"HEY FRISK!" The voice belonged to Undyne. "We're rooting for you! Me, Paps, and Puns have been watching this whole time. We knew you could do it!"

"Human!" Papyrus was now speaking. "I'm so proud of you… Your puzzling skills are better than I could have ever imagined! I hope you never forget that it was I, the great Papyrus, that taught you all you know! Ha ha!" Frisk now started to feel tears well up in her eyes as well. Her friends had been watching, rooting her on.

"Frisk," Sans's voice came back on the phone, which made her heart jump. "Keep doing what you are doing. You're amazing. Don't forget to stop back here before you head out, ok?" Hearing Sans's voice made her feel giddy. He was rooting for her. Frisk realized that even if Sans would never be romantically interested in her, she could still enjoy his company and be his friend.

Mettaton announced that the battle was over and went to shake Frisk's hand.

"Frisk, you made me realize something," Mettaton said. "I don't need to go above ground. I don't need all the fame and fortune up there. People need me down here, to keep their spirits up. Even if we never make it out of here… I need to be there for them. Listen Frisk… I think your soul is strong enough to break through the barrier. I have faith in you. And so do your friends."

Frisk smiled. The thought of her Underground friends believing in her filled her with determination, and she continued toward the barrier.


	7. Chapter 7

Frisk and Mettaton went back to Alphys's lab after the battle with Mettaton. Their encounter had completely exhausted her, and Alphys offered her some rest in her lab. Frisk accepted and followed her and Mettaton back to the lab. The chill she had felt when she first entered the lab had disappeared. She plopped onto Alphys's spare bed and knocked out until the next day.

It was morning. There were no windows in Alphys's lab, but her watch had told her that it was morning in Hotland. She got up from the spare bed and made her way downstairs, where Alphys and Mettaton were together, talking.

"Oh!" Alphys exclaimed. "You're awake!" She held out a bowl of instant noodles. "I made you some food, if you want." Frisk realized how hungry she was. The last thing she ate was Papyrus' spaghetti, which he had packed into plastic containers for her. As much as she loved Papyrus, she could not stomach any more of his spaghetti.

Frisk eagerly accepted the noodles. They were a little stiff and hot, but the taste of noodles immediately satiated her. She downed the noodles faster than she had ever downed food before.

"Wow," Alphys said. "Someone was hungry!" Alphys and Mettaton started laughing. Frisk started laughing as well. She felt silly about the way she felt back in Waterfall and realized she cared a lot about all the friends she had made on her journey so far, especially Sans.

"What's that face for?" Mettaton exclaimed. "You look like Alphys when she thinks about Undyne."

"WHAAT!" Alphys said nervously. "I do not think about Undyne every second of every day!" Frisk looked at Alphys's face and realized they were indeed making the same exact expression. Frisk laughed harder than she did earlier.

"Could it be?" Mettaton said, giving a mischievous smirk. "Frisk has a crush on someone?" Frisk then began to deny it just as Alphys denied her attraction to Undyne. "I think I know who it is too… It's Sans isn't it?" Mettaton gave Frisk a sly look. She felt her face get hot and red. Frisk knew her emotions were written all over her face and tried to turn away from Mettaton. "I knew it! I saw your face when Sans called… It's the same face you're making now!" Mettaton cackled.

"Ohmigosh!" Alphys exclaimed. "YOU LIKE SANS? THAT'S SO KAWAII!" Alphys squealed with glee. Frisk could tell Alphys was shipping her with Sans and was already writing stories about them in her head.

"Ok, ok," Frisk said, giving in. "So, I like Sans maybe a tiny bit… Why does it matter?"

Mettaton and Alphys were extremely excited. They explained how Sans never cared about anything and that hearing him on the phone call cheering her on meant that he cared about her.

"Listen," Mettaton said. "That boy doesn't care about shit besides Papyrus and science. But yesterday, I saw something I never saw before. He called us just to cheer you on! He cares about you!"

"Guys," Frisk said. "Ok he does care about me, but really, I'm pretty sure it's just because we're friends."

"Oh, come off it," Mettaton replied. "Sans is friends with Alphys and Undyne but has never done anything like that before with them. He must really care about you! Goddamn girl what did you do to him!" Mettaton chuckled.

Frisk became sad as she remembered what happened at Grillbys. She retold the story to Alphys and Mettaton over breakfast. How she figured Sans was a womanizer and would have zero interest in a girl like her.

"How judgemental!" Mettaton exclaimed. "You wouldn't date Sans just because of his previous history with women?"

"No no," Frisk responded. "That's not it at all! I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to date him just because he's been with a lot of women. I just don't think he'd be interested in me at all. I mean… look at me. I'm not exactly a busty bunny like the three bunnies Sans has been with."

"Frisk baby!" Mettaton said. "So what if you have a flat chest and no ass?" Gee thanks, Frisk mumbled under her breath. "What's beautiful about you is your pure heart and soul! You radiate kindness and positivity wherever you go and THAT'S what's amazing about you. I bet even Alphys is developing a crush on you!" Alphys's face started to become red as well.

"WHAA!" Alphys almost fell out of her seat. "I do not have a crush on Frisk! I mean yes, she has treated me so well and believes in me and calling her on the phone doesn't make me nervous-" Mettaton continued to cackle.

"Alphys honey, we all know you have a crush on EVERYONE!" Mettaton and Frisk laughed.

"Stop changing the subject! We need to focus on how great Frisk and Sans would be together!" Frisk tried to deflect the subject back to Alphys and her crushes, but it didn't work.

"Guys come on! A relationship between me and Sans would never work anyway because ahh…" Frisk felt her face get red as she talked more about herself. "I've uh… never had a boyfriend before…"

"FRISK HONEY!" Mettaton screeched. "YOU'RE A VIRGIN?!" Frisk became flustered.

"Don't say that so loud!" Frisk said. "I just… never really had an interest in anyone so I've never dated…"

"Oh yes," Mettaton exclaimed, while posing on top of the breakfast table. "Then it is my utmost mission, being reborn as Mettaton EX, and making the entire Underground happy, including you Frisk my dear, I will get Sans to sleep with you if it's the last thing I ever do!" Frisk couldn't contain her embarrassment. Yes, she was attracted to Sans, but never really thought about doing anything intimate with him. She thought of her lips touching his skeleton mouth, her fingers intertwining with his bony digits, and wearing his blue hoodie, which she loved on him…

"Guys! Please! Stop! Besides, I'm a human and he's a skeleton, I…" Frisk was embarrassed even talking about this subject.

"Oh please," Mettaton replied. "Do you see the monsters living down here? We have some pretty creative ways to get it on." Mettaton cackled. Frisk pleaded with Alphys to change the subject, but Alphys laughed along with Mettaton.

"Alright Mettaton come on," Alphys said. "Don't joke around with her. We only want Sans to sleep with Frisk if he actually does like her." Frisk reiterated that Sans would never return her feelings anyway, so she would never sleep with him. "But that doesn't mean I won't try to get you two to fall in love!" Alphys went into fangirl mode all over again.

Frisk, still embarrassed, laughed at the scene in front of her. She really did love her friends in the Underground. Maybe I should stay, Frisk thought. For a little while.

* * *

Frisk and Mettaton had gone out for some fresh, Hotland air, leaving Alphys in her lab at her computer, where she always was. Alphys squealed internally just thinking about trying to set Sans and Frisk up. She decided to call Undyne and share with her the conversation with Frisk.

"Heyo!" Undyne answered. "Oh hey Alphys! I saw you on TV the other day! You were wonderful!" Alphys turned beet red hearing Undyne compliment her through the phone. She attempted to regain her composure upon remembering why she had called in the first place. Alphys explained how she had just spoken with Frisk and she confessed that she was attracted to Sans. She then went on to ramble about how cute they are together before telling Undyne that her and Mettaton planned to get them together. "WHAT A COINCIDENCE!" Undyne screamed through the phone. "PAPS AND I ARE TRYING TO DO THE SAME THING!" Alphys fangirled with Undyne over the phone about Frisk and Sans. "OK. The four of us officially have to meet up to get this plan going!"


	8. Chapter 8

Sans stood outside of the MTT resort. Rarely did he come all the way to the core on days he wasn't performing, but he needed to get out of his house. Undyne and Papyrus were at home all the time and as much as he loved both of them, there was only so much of their antics he could handle. His nose was filled with the smell of burnt spaghetti. In his hand, was a dog treat that Doggo handed him. "You look stressed Sans," Doggo had said. "Here's something to take a load off." He stared at the dog treat and was seriously contemplating lighting it up and taking a smoke. He had never smoked before and was unsure if he wanted to even try the dog treat. He didn't even have lungs. He used his magic to light up the dog treat but then had second thoughts and stomped the dog treat out.

Something must be wrong with me, Sans thought. If I am almost… resort-ing to smoking dog treats. Sans chucked to himself at the resort pun he had just made.

"What's so funny, bonehead?" A familiar voice rang though, startling him. The voice was warm and filled Sans with joy. "What, never seen a human before?" Frisk smiled at Sans. Sans tried to cover the dog treat by standing in its way as soon as he realized Frisk was there. Frisk's smile melted Sans's ability to speak. He didn't expect to see her there, as he thought she would have made her way to the core to get out of the Underground by now. Frisk was wearing the same striped sweater and shorts but somehow, she had looked even cuter than the last time he saw her.

"Just thinking about that awesome MTT episode I saw yesterday," Sans said. "No need to be so stern-um." Frisk started howling with laughter and blushed hearing Sans compliment her on her fight against Mettaton. "How have you been? Looks like you've been pretty busy."

Frisk chuckled. "Yeah, I guess I have, haven't I? It's been a pretty crazy couple of days. I can't believe I'm almost to the end of the Underground. Haven't really had much of a chance to rest aside from hanging out with Alphys and Mettaton yesterday." Sans studied Frisk's face for as long as he could. He remembered she was leaving him soon and that would be the most pain he would ever experience in his life. This time, however, instead of trying to forget her, he wanted to spend the most time with her as possible, even if she didn't love him back.

"Listen," Sans said. "MTT resort is kind of my space. I can take you out to dinner if you want. As an apology for uh, what happened at Grillby's the other day…" Sans was embarrassed even bringing it up. Would she remember what happened and reject his offer to take her out? Eternity seemed to pass by before she gave her answer.

"Why not," Frisk said. "Wouldn't want you to be bone-ly!" Frisk chuckled at her bone pun and Sans gave a few laughs. "And don't worry about Grillby's Sans, it wasn't your fault. The bunnies were the ones ruining the date." Frisk caught herself. She had accidentally said date and her face was becoming all red. "Did I say date? I meant day! Ha sorry what a word mix up!" She tried to recover.

"No, I owe you a date Frisk," Sans responded. "That day at Grillby's shouldn't have gone like that. We won't have any distractions here. Come on, I'll show you around the resort."

Frisk linked her arm with Sans', causing Sans to blush. "Alright my skeleton escort," She said. "Show me the way, your bone-liness." Sans cracked up at Frisk's pun attempt and told her she was alright, but not as good as the master.

Sans led Frisk to the lobby of the resort, and then to the restaurant. The hostess greeted Sans as and old friend would, and they were led to a luxury booth in the back of the restaurant.

"Sans," Frisk exclaimed, admiring the velvet seats and granite-finish table. "How did you get such a nice table? Oh my gosh I'd feel so bad, let me pay for half-" Sans cut Frisk off with laughter.

"Don't worry about it. I actually perform at this restaurant regularly, so I get huge discounts on actually eating here."

"You perform? What do you do?"

"What else? Stand-up comedy."

"Not surprised. I'm sure your puns dig down to the bone."

"That was decent, but not nearly to my level. You need to bone your skills more."

Frisk and Sans continued to crack bone jokes until the waitress took their orders and their food got to the table.

"I need to be honest with you Frisk," Sans said. "For years, I would sit outside of the door to the ruins. I used to practice my bone jokes to myself because I thought no one was around. One day, I heard someone laughing on the other side of that door, and I continued to crack puns at her. She gave me the confidence to start performing in front of audiences like this."

Frisk knew that Sans was talking about Toriel. She remembered the book of bone puns in Toriel's room and smiled, thinking about how Sans had made Toriel smile and try to keep her company all those years.

"She's pretty amazing, isn't she." Frisk said.

"It became more than just pun cracking. We talked about a lot of stuff. Stuff I only felt comfortable talking to her about because I never saw her face and she never saw mine. It was some sort of mutual agreement. Like anonymous confessions. I'd tell her about Papyrus and she'd tell me about the humans that would fall down into the ruins. I'm sure you've heard by now, you're not the first one to fall."

"Oh, I know, I'm the last soul needed or something to cross the barrier. Undyne and Paps told me all about that."

"I'll tell you something about me Frisk, that I'm sure you've realized. I hate promises. I never make them because what's the point? But one day, this woman from the ruins, the day Papyrus told me he was trying to join the Royal Guard, I told her all about it. How excited I was for him that he had a dream, something he was working toward. How proud I was that I had such a hard-working brother. She gave me someone to talk to. That day she made me promise her that I would protect any human that comes through the Ruins. At first, I didn't want to make that promise. I didn't care about anything really. But I felt like I owed her that much."

"Well, I'm still alive, so you can tell her you're doing a great job." Frisk smiled.

"It's not that simple, Frisk. The other six humans that came before you… they weren't as kind as you are. And I let them do whatever they wanted. I kind of just watched. I would meet them right before the end of their journey and each of them were out for blood just to get out of this Underground. As soon as they showed that they were willing to do anything to get out, they were beyond my help. Each of them went to Asgore and he slayed all six of them." Frisk could feel Sans' pain and guilt. Sans maintained this persona of an aloof skeleton that cares about nothing and no one but Papyrus but she was seeing his true personality. It made her like him even more.

"It's not your fault Sans. You did everything you could. It was their decision to go and fight Asgore, not yours."

"You know what though, it's ok. Because if I hadn't made that promise, I probably would have tried to kill you." Sans pupils disappeared. That scared Frisk, and she reflexively flinched. "Every human before you was always out for themselves and would kill a few monsters out of fear. But you were so different from everyone. You made friends with everyone and you showed them you genuinely cared. Every day since I met you, I've thanked that woman from the Ruins because if it wasn't for that promise, I never would have gotten to know you. It was… the best promise… I ever made."

Frisk blushed. She felt the same way. She loved every single friend she had made in the Underground, but she loved Sans the most. Her heart was pounding out of her chest as they smiled at each other, enjoying each other's company.

"Thank you, Sans," Frisk said. "You've been such an amazing person to me." She went back to eat her food and dropped her fork. She went to pick it up at the same time that Sans did, and their fingers brushed. Both of them reflexively pulled away upon feeling each other's fingers. Frisk blushed madly and looked away and Sans did as well. "Ah, I'm s-sorry!"

Sans felt something between them. He instinctively reached for her warm, soft hand but was interrupted by a loud announcement.

"IIITTTTSS OPEN MIC NIGHT!" The announcer bellowed. Cheers and applause filled the room, interrupting Sans and Frisk's tender moment. "Is that who I think it is! Is that our boy SANS THE SKELETON!" The entire restaurant looked at Sans as the announcer went up to their table. "My boy, you gotta "open" our open mic night for us!" Sans booed the announcer at his bad pun and turned to Frisk.

"I'm sorry, I'm totally being dragged up there, I'll be back I swear." Sans got carried away and went up to the stage.

Frisk laughed. She felt like her relationship with Sans had gone on a much deeper level than ever before. The feeling of love and admiration for her favorite skeleton filled her with determination.


	9. Chapter 9

"Alright, alright," Sans said to the crowd. Frisk watched in admiration as Sans seemed to be in his zone up on stage. "Only for you guys. No puns tonight but I do always bring my handy dandy trom…bone!" The audience howled with laughter and cheered Sans on. Frisk chuckled as well. "Here's a fan favorite. I'm gonna dedicate this one to my good friend Frisk over there. I call this one… Megalovania."

Frisk didn't know that Sans could play the trombone. As soon as the song started, Frisk felt the energy of the room multiply exponentially. Everyone was listening in anticipation for this song, which seemed to be a popular song in the Underground. After the first 16 seconds, Sans kicked it up a notch, and the beat of the song dropped. The crowd went wild, and people started dancing in their seats. Frisk was amazed at how good Sans was at the trombone. The beats and rhythms were perfect, and each note that danced out of his trombone seemed to send a chill down Frisk's spine. It was like she was in a trance and had lost her train of thought the whole time Sans was performing.

The song ended and Frisk snapped back to reality. She smiled and clapped for him, giving him a standing ovation. He really was amazing. Aside from playing the trombone, Sans could crack jokes, make puzzles, and study quantum physics. He had so many interests for a skeleton that "didn't care".

"Give it up for Sans!" The announcer cheered. As Sans walked back to the table, the announcer noticed Frisk sitting in the seat across from him. "Oh ho! Who's this Sans? A new lady friend?" The whole restaurant joined in a harmonious "Ooh!"

"This is my good friend, Frisk," Sans said. "She's new to the Underground."

"Well let's get her up there!" The announcer started grabbing Frisk by the hand.

"Ahh, wait no!" Frisk pleaded, but Sans just laughed and let her be led to the stage.

"Alright human! We've seen you on MTT live but we know nothing about you! Introduce yourself!"

"Um ok, my name is Frisk, I'm a human. This is my first time in the Underground and I've been here a few days."

"Ok!" The audience started cheering again. "So, Frisk! Have any special talents you'd like to show off to the crowd?"

"Well… I do play the piano…" The audience cheered again.

"Piano! Let's hear it!" A piano then materialized out of nowhere, but Frisk did not question it. She had found a piano randomly in a cave in Waterfall and nothing else had fazed her about her time in the Underground anymore.

"This is a song I learned recently. It has no name but feels like a distant memory. I hope you enjoy it."

Frisk began to play the song she had heard in Waterfall. It was a powerful melody, as soft as her fingers on the keys. While Megalovania had gotten the crowd pumped up, Memory made a wave of nostalgia sweep through the air. Sans felt it too. The way Frisk hit each note melodically and with meaning made him want to listen to her play piano even more. He had no idea she could play the piano. His head filled with memories of days past, his time as the assistant to Royal Scientist W. D. Gaster, growing up with Papyrus, and his time before he ended up in the Underground.

He then felt sadness. Frisk was going to leave him soon. She then would become as much of a memory as the thoughts flooding in his head. It was painful to think about it. He wanted nothing more than for Frisk to stay with him. He watched her, trying to imbed the image of her playing into his brain. She was as graceful as the notes dancing off the piano. He couldn't deny how much he had fallen for this fallen human.

The song ended. Sans felt something wet on his face. A blue tear? He didn't even have tear ducts. His left eye was glowing softly. As Frisk came back to the table to join him, his eye slowly lost its color.

"I've never done anything like that before," Frisk said through her smile. "I usually just play by myself. I don't usually have an audience but that was a lot of fun. Thank you for taking me here Sans. Are you… ok?" Sans realized he must have still looked upset and tried to force a smile.

"Yes I'm ok," Sans replied. "That song just reminded me of a lot of stuff from my past that I hadn't thought about in a while. Thank you for the beautiful song and your company." Sans paid for their meal and walked Frisk back to the lobby. "I guess this is where we part ways, huh?"

"Yeah," Frisk said. But only for a little. I'm not gonna leave without telling everyone goodbye. I just want to at least map my way to King Asgore and then I'll come back and say goodbye to everyone before I go. You'll see me again silly." Frisk gave Sans a hug. She's so warm, Sans thought. I don't want to break this hug. Frisk then kissed Sans on the cheek. "Seriously Sans, thank you for everything so far. You know the best restaurants in town. I'll see you soon." Frisk disappeared into the core. Sans stood there, holding his hand to his cheek, eagerly awaiting when he would see her in the Last Corridor.

* * *

He really couldn't stop thinking about her. Everything on TV was about the sensational highest-rated episode of MTT that Frisk was on and he couldn't stop thinking about the date they had had at MTT resort. He wanted nothing more than to spend more time with her. He kept imagining what it would feel like to kiss those pink human lips. He tried to imagine the feeling of her kiss on his cheek to one on his nonexistent lips. He had never gotten this flustered about a girl before. He tried to fill his day with activities to distract himself from thinking about Frisk but couldn't shake the thought of her. He only wanted her by his side. Picking up his hoodie, he walked out of his house and headed to Grillby's for the first time since had been there with Frisk.

"Sans my boy!" Grillby yelled. "Haven't seen you in a few days! Welcome back!" Sans took his usual seat at the bar. None of the bunnies were seen anywhere. "Don't worry Sans, I took that event very seriously. I've never seen you angry before. They haven't come back since."

"Good fucking riddance," Sans remarked, taking a swig of his usual order of ketchup. "Put some hot sauce in the next one Grillby, I'm gonna need it."

"Hot sauce?" Grillby said. "Jesus are you ok? You've never asked me to put hot sauce in with your ketchup before." Despite his concern, Grillby complied and added a shot of hot sauce to Sans's next drink. "What's on your mind?" Sans hesitated, but then softly mumbled that it was a girl. "What's that? Speak up! I can't hear you! Did you say you're in love?" Sans became more embarrassed and tried to pull his hoodie up.

"Yes, ok I'm in love, are you happy now?" Sans admitted, hiding his face from Grillby.

"No way! You fell for the human?!" Grillby cackled.

"How the hell did you-"

"Sans please, it was written all over your face during the last time you were here. You must really have it bad for her!" Sans sighed. He came to Grillby's to try and take his mind off of Frisk, not talk about her.

"It doesn't matter. She's leaving anyway and I won't ever see her again soon."

"Sans, I swear to Asgore, if you don't confess to this girl before she leaves, I'm never serving you ketchup again. Don't let her out until she knows how you feel."

"But what if she doesn't like me? I'll never live that down and I'll have ruined our friendship. On the other hand, what if she does like me and wants to stay? Then I'll have prevented her from going to her real home. Or what if she wants me to come with her, I can't leave Papyrus-"

"Whoa calm down! Listen. Just tell her how you feel and what she does after that is her decision ok?"

Sans took a gulp of his hot sauce ketchup and tried to ignore Grillby.


	10. Chapter 10

Frisk entered the Last Corridor, out of breath from trying to reach the end so quickly. Beyond her was a beautiful golden hallway with granite pillars of the same color holding everything up. Glass windows stained with the mysterious "Delta Rune" symbol was strewn everywhere. She had a feeling this would be her last chance to rest before she reached Asgore. She walked along the long corridor, thinking about her friends.

Papyrus was the hardest-working skeleton she had ever known. Despite any drawbacks, he always found a way to motivate himself to keep moving forward. He was always trying to find ways to get everyone to become friends. Had it not been for Papyrus's suggestion, Frisk never would have come with him to Undyne's house and she never would have become so close to her. He had been a confidant throughout her journey and always picked up the phone whenever she called. His kindness resonated through her very soul.

Undyne was the most determined monster in the Underground. Even when she was bent on killing Frisk and using her soul to cross the barrier, Frisk know she was doing it because she cared about every monster in the Underground. All Undyne wanted was to try her best for her friends and the people she loved. Although she seemed tough and scary in the beginning, she really did care about Papyrus, Alphys, and Asgore. Undyne would beam whenever she talked about the three of them. All she wanted to do was protect Papyrus from becoming hurt in the battlefield. She wanted Alphys to realize how amazing of a person she was and wanted to relieve Asgore of the pain of having to gather 7 human souls. Undyne's caring personality resonated within her.

Although Alphys had confessed to Frisk that the Mettaton event was staged so that Frisk would become her friend, Frisk accepted Alphys's friendship nonetheless. She admired how dedicated Alphys was to her research and that she wasn't afraid to show her nerdy side. Frisk herself was also nervous talking to new people and she sympathized with Alphys's social anxiety. Despite this, Alphys was able to overcome her phobia to guide Frisk through Hotland and to the core. Alphys' ability to push through her weaknesses shone through her soul.

All of a sudden, in the middle of the hallway, a skeleton figure appeared out of nowhere. She recognized that skeleton anywhere. Light shone through the corridor, and in front of her was Sans. Her heart skipped a beat. She was about to smile and run up to him, but his demeanor signaled to her that he was there for a very different reason.

Sans greeted Frisk and explained that he had the power to see a human's EXP and LOVE. A strange feeling filled Frisk at that moment. She had never seen Sans so serious before. Up until that moment, they were close friends, always laughing together and hanging out. This time, however, she felt as though Sans had been judging her every move since she stepped into the Underground. It was the same feeling she had when he snuck up behind her in Snowdin.

"Welcome to the end of the Underground," Sans said. "I am here to judge you on your journey so far. As you know, I've been watching you since you stepped out of the ruins, seeing how you interact with monster-kind. Had you been a killing-machine, I would have been forced to use my powers against you. The previous six humans before you did not heed my judgements, and they were rightfully punished with death by Asgore." Frisk started to get scared. Was Sans going to kill her right there and take her soul to free the monsters? Was their friendship just an act to make her vulnerable enough to kill in one hit?

She froze.

"However… The more I watched you Frisk, the more I realized you had not one bad bone in your body." He chuckled to himself at the insertion of a bone joke in the middle of their serious conversation. "You've shown me how much of an amazing person you are, Frisk. You cared about each and every one of us: Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton… We have never seen a human as amazing as you. You always strive to do the right thing. You… you made me care about something again. You. I really care about you Frisk and I don't want to see you have to fight Asgore. But… I know you have to get home. You don't belong here. You have a life on the surface. So I guess… this is going to be my goodbye. I've never been able to talk to anyone as openly as much as you. I've had so much fun with you the past few days. It's going to hurt when you leave but I know you have to. You're amazing Frisk, and me and the rest of the Underground will miss you deeply. I know you're going to do the right thing."

"Sans…" Frisk said. "You've been such an amazing skeleton to me. I really appreciate everything you've done for me. You and everyone else. At first, I just wanted to get out of here as fast as possible, but the more time I spent with everyone, the more I realized how amazing it is down here. I'm really going to miss you guys." Frisk hugged Sans. "Goodbye, Sans." Frisk walked past Sans towards the next corridor. Sans remembered what Grillby had told him. He tried to muster all his courage to turn around confess his feelings to her before she left. He wanted to scream for her and tell him how much he loved her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He was too scared.

Sorry Grillby, Sans thought. But I don't make promises.

Sans closed his eyes, thinking of all the wonderful times he had with Frisk. The pain was starting to set in. Starting from that moment, he would start his life without Frisk. He knew it was going to happen one way or another, but he wasn't truly prepared for the gaping hole he felt inside of him. He only wished that she was still there when he opened his eyes, but he knew she would be long gone when he turned around.

* * *

Sans opened his eyes.

"Sans!"

The sudden voice jolted him awake. What happened? How many minutes had passed? He knew he was waiting for Frisk at the corridor.

It was that same feeling. A reset.

Sans realized he lost about the last 5 minutes of his memory. Or had it been more than 5 minutes? He didn't know. All he knew is that Frisk was standing in front of him again. He only remembered the pain of her leaving and was not ready to experience it for a second time.

Frisk spoke. It was his triple-secret codeword. Two resets? So she had been the one messing with the timeline this whole time. He chuckled to himself.

"You sound so stupid right now. Who that hell told you to say that?" Sans winked.

"Some bonehead," Frisk responded. "Listen… Sans, I'm not ready to leave the Underground yet. I want to stay with all of you guys. It's been so wonderful for me down here. And I don't want to have to kill anyone just to let myself leave. I've known for a while that I had to kill Asgore to leave, but I don't want to, Sans. I can't. I'm not a killer. I'd rather stay down here than become a killer just to get out."

Sans blinked. He was shocked. Frisk wanted to stay?

"What about your life on the surface? Your friends and family. Won't they miss you?"

"I want to spend more time with the people down here. They can wait."

Sans wanted to cry of joy. Whatever timeline this was, he thanked whatever deity was controlling his life that this was the timeline he ended up in. She was willing to give up her life on the surface just to stay true to her ideals. Something must have happened for her to have to reset twice, but whatever it was, he was happy she decided to stay. He put his hands on Frisk's shoulders.

"Since you're staying, I'll give you a ride back." Sans teleported both of them away from the edge of the Underground.


	11. Chapter 11

Papyrus heard a ring on his phone. Eagerly, he pried himself away from his puzzles and answered the phone.

"The Great Papyrus speaking," Papyrus answered. "Oh, Sans! What's up? What? Come home? I'm in the middle of puzzle-making at the moment… Huh? It's important? Ok, we will be right there!" Papyrus hung up his phone. He got up from fixing his X and O puzzle and turned to Undyne, who was adjusting another puzzle for him. "It's Sans. He wants us to come home. He says it's important." Undyne lifted herself from the ground, chuckling.

"Ha," Undyne said. "What could be so important to Sans that he needs to call us out? Did Grillby's run out of ketchup?" Papyrus looked down sadly. "Oh. Right. It must be Frisk coming to say goodbye. I should call Alphys and Mettaton too." Papyrus and Undyne set off toward central Snowdin, while Undyne called Alphys on her cell phone.

"Undyne!" Alphys screamed through the phone. "W-what's up?" Alphys sounded audibly nervous. Undyne knew how nervous Alphys got over the phone.

"Listen, come to Snowdin. I think Frisk is going to say goodbye to us."

"What?! Already?! Oh my gosh no, I wanted to spend more time with her…" Undyne and Papyrus agreed, saying they did not want to say goodbye to Frisk yet.

"No," Another voice rang through from Alphys's side of the line. "We need to get her to stay. She hasn't said anything to Sans yet. We need to get them to confess!" Alphys pulled the other voice away from the phone.

"Mettaton, no! We don't want to force things! If she really wants to leave without telling Sans she likes him, t-then… I don't think we should force her to do anything she doesn't want to do."

"So," Mettaton answered back. "We have to get Sans to do it. Papyrus, say something to your brother, will you?"

"Uh," Papyrus said. He would feel bad trying to get Sans to confess when he wasn't ready either. Although both of them have admitted their feelings for each other to Papyrus, he didn't feel comfortable playing matchmaker right before Frisk was about to head back to the surface. "I don't think I should force it either. I'm with Alphys on this one."

"You guys are totally lame. How are we going to get them to bang?" Mettaton cackled.

Undyne agreed with both Papyrus and Alphys not to force anything, but to at least have Frisk hold off on leaving until they have one last hang out together. She figured this would give Sans and Frisk enough time to think about each other and try and confess before Frisk left.

"A-and then!" Alphys interjected. "We 'leave them alone' by accident, but totally not by accident, totally on purpose! Just like in anime when two characters are about to confess to each other because they're all alone! It'll be so amazing! I'm getting moved just thinking about it! Ok. I'm going to make a group chat for us so we can text without them knowing we're talking about them!" The four continued to plot all the way to central Snowdin on how to get the two together.

* * *

Frisk sat on Sans' couch, nervously. It was just the two of them in that house. They had never been completely alone like this before, and the thought of being completely alone with Sans made her nervous. Sans returned from the kitchen with some water for Frisk.

"So uh," Sans said, handing the cup of water to Frisk. "Are you really sure about this? You know we can try and help you find a way out, you don't have to do this on your own."

"It's ok Sans," Frisk said. "I'm not a murderer. Besides, I think… I might be the only one that can pass through the barrier right now. I feel like… There's a way to get everyone out, but I'm not sure yet. I don't wanna leave the Underground unless… You guys come with me." Sans blinked. What really happened to her on the other two timelines? Just as he was about to ask, Papyrus and company burst through the door.

"BROOOTHER!" Papyrus exclaimed. "We are here! What is up?"

"Frisk has something to say." Sans said. The five monsters plopped onto the couch while Frisk stood in front of the TV. For some reason, Frisk was nervous.

"I'm gonna stay in the Underground for a while."

Papyrus's jaw fell to the floor. Undyne was speechless. Alphys held her hands up to her face, hiding her overjoyed expression. Mettaton immediately rose from the couch and picked Frisk up and started dancing with her.

"OH YES!" Mettaton said. "Frisky, you're staying?! That makes me so happy! Ah, this will be… FABULOUS!" Papyrus, Alphys, and Undyne pulled Frisk in for a group hug. "Well, what are you waiting for, Sans, get in here too!" Usually during moments like this, Sans would shrug and opt out of group activities. He never saw himself as much of a "friend-group" guy. He figured, what was the point if there were different timelines running? This time, however, was different. His favorite human was staying, his brother was happy, and the rest of the Underground had a glimmer of hope of escaping. He chuckled and walked over to join the hug. His face pressed against Frisks', causing him to blush. Mettaton pulled them together for a group photo using his extendable arms. His camera printed a copy for each person.

"Alright," Papyrus said. "First thing's first. Frisk, you are welcome to stay at the home of Papyrus and Sans in Snowdin for the time being. I know it's kind of cramped in here since Undyne has been staying on our couch, but we can make it work!" Frisk politely declined, saying she didn't want to burden the skele-bros with another houseguest, but Papyrus insisted. "I am not letting you sleep on the streets or in that hotel every night when you could just be staying here with us for free! Besides, it's like a sleepover that will last indefinitely! All the spaghetti and puzzles you could ever want!"

"And puns." Sans interjected.

"NO PUNS! Uh, unless you want puns Frisk?" Frisk laughed and said she wanted as much spaghetti, puzzles, and puns that they could give her.

"Be careful what you wish for, Frisk," Sans said to her. "You wouldn't wanna… regretti that spaghetti." Papyrus cringed at the mention of the spaghetti pun while Frisk laughed as hard as she could.

"Anyway, moving on," Papyrus said. "Since Undyne is sleeping on our couch and uh," Papyrus tried to think of any excuse he could so that Frisk would have to sleep in Sans' room. "I wouldn't want to haunt Frisk with the memories of me rejecting her, I think that she should sleep in your room Sans." Both Sans and Frisk started blushing simultaneously.

"O-oh, no I could never impose on Sans like that!" Frisk said. "I can totally just sleep on the floor next to Undyne, it's no big deal!" Papyrus shot Undyne a look that screamed "HELP ME". She picked up on Papyrus's facial expression and tried to recover.

"Frisk, I don't think that's such a good idea," Undyne explained to Frisk. "You see, when I sleep I kinda, uh, sleep… stab...? Yeah! Sleep stab! You see those marks on the floor?" Undyne pointed to the marks where her spear had hit the ground during the Mettaton TV special. "If you sleep there, I'll chop you into little bits with my spear! Unknowingly!" Sans knew Undyne was bluffing. Those marks only showed up whenever she was watching an intense TV show. He'd seen Undyne sleep on their couch numerous times, and not once did he see her "sleep-stab". He knew they were trying to get Frisk to sleep in his room. As much as he wanted her near him, he was embarrassed at the state of his room.

"Uh, my room is an utter mess," Sans said. "I don't think Frisk would wanna stay in there."

"Oh!" Alphys interjected. "Did I not tell you guys? I made Papyrus a robot that cleans houses! He, uh, requested I make this for him. I think he's been hard at work."

"The fuck?" Sans said. He rushed up to his room. To his shock, his room was spotless. All his socks were washed and folded, the bedsheets that had been rolled up into a ball on his bed were wrinkle-free and spread out on top of his bed, and the spaghetti carnage was gone. It was like a completely different room. "Papyrus why the fuck did you mess with my room?"

"Aha," Papyrus said. "I'm sorry! I just wanted Alphys to make a robot room cleaner for me, and she ended up building a robot that cleaned our entire house!" And try to get people together, apparently, Sans thought. He was seething, as he never let anyone into his bedroom without his permission. "Look! The robot found a spare mattress underneath the piles of socks!" The mattress looked completely new. Sans knew they didn't own a spare mattress, they never needed it before. Those fucks, Sans thought. They planned this.

"Well," Frisk said softly. "If the mattress is already here, I guess I wouldn't want to trouble anyone to move it somewhere else for me. Of course, uh, I'll only be okay staying in here if Sans is okay with it..." She blushed and looked down away at Sans, embarrassed at the thought of them sharing a room together. Sans was just as embarrassed as she was.

"Y-yeah," Sans stuttered, trying to hide his embarrassment and delight. "I don't mind. I'd uh, rather you not stay somewhere where you don't know anyone."

"Then it's settled!" Papyrus exclaimed. "From tonight on, starts our indefinite slumber party!" Undyne and Papyrus jumped up and down with excitement. Alphys looked down at her phone.

MTT: YES! THEY'RE DEFINITELY GONNA BANG!

Dr. A: Mettaton stop! That's not appropriate!

The Great Paps: There's no way they won't confess now! Great job everyone!

Undying: 10/10 quick thinking guys. No way will we let Frisk sleep anywhere besides Sans' room!

The four of them started snickering. Sans glared at the four monsters.

"What are you guys giggling about?" Sans shot at them.

"Oh," Alphys said. "Just sharing with them a fanfiction I wrote." Sans sighed and retreated up to his room. Frisk was already fast asleep on the mattress. The time-traveling must have worn her out, Sans thought. I'll ask her about it tomorrow, I guess. Sans tried to tuck himself into his bed but was so nervous that Frisk was there that he couldn't sleep at all.


	12. Chapter 12

"Nope," Grillby said. "No ketchup for you."

"What?" Sans was shocked. "Why the fuck not?"

"You told me you'd confess to her before you left. She's been here a few days now and you still haven't said anything." Grillby held the bottle of ketchup in front of Sans as if to egg him on.

"Fuck you Grillby," Sans said, swiping the ketchup from his hands. "You said to confess before she left. Well, she doesn't plan on leaving. Therefore, our stipulations are invalid." He gulped down the ketchup in less than 5 seconds. He picked at his fries while sitting at the bar. Frisk had been there for a couple of days already, but Sans' sentry duty was keeping him busy. Frisk had been going around town getting to know some of the residents of Snowdin. She had made so many friends since her time living with them, but he wasn't shocked. She was an amazing person that was easy to get along with. Unfortunately, Frisk was always out with some Snowdin resident during the day and Sans was always working sentry until late at night, so she usually would be asleep when he got back. Even when they did run into each other, they didn't have much time to chat besides small talk. There was so much Sans wanted to talk to Frisk about.

"Jesus," Grillby said, interrupting Sans' thoughts. "You get the love of your life in your house, and you still look miserable as a dog.

"Hey!" Doggo shouted from across the bar. "I resent that!"

"Shut your yap Doggo, you ain't resenting nothing as long as your tab is still unpaid." Doggo glared at Grillby and stuck another dog treat in his mouth, lighting it on fire. "Ugh, why did I ever say it was okay for him to smoke dog treats in here."

"You're literally fire, Grillz," Sans said. "Anything you say would be hypocritical."

"I'm not done with you, ketchup boy," Grillby teased Sans. "Everyone and their mother knows how bad you have it for Frisk. They're just waiting for you two to get together."

"And how the fuck would people know that?" Sans glared at Grillby, accusing him of spreading his secret.

"Don't look at me like that, I may be fire but boy, are you so obvious that that secret spread like wildfire!"

"Fuck you and your fire puns."

"Sans not enjoying a pun? Goddamn my man what the hell is wrong with you?!" Grillby chuckled.

"I don't get to see her much anyway. She's always asleep in my room when I come home. Why the fuck do we still need sentries right now anyway? Frisk isn't dangerous." He took another gulp of ketchup when he realized his mistake. Grillby was smirking at him.

"She sleeps… in _your_ room, Sans?"

Fuck, Sans thought. Me and my big mouth.

"Yeah well, Papyrus didn't want her in his room because it would bring back bad memories and Undyne stabs the floor in her sleep, and-" Grillby started howling with laughter.

"Sans got a girl in his room that he HASN'T slept with! Oh man this is a good one! The fuck kind of alternate universe is this?!" Grillby and the monsters sitting at the bar howled with laughter.

"Oh, fuck off everyone," Sans said, flipping them off. "Those ketchups are going on YOUR tab, Doggo."

"What?!" Doggo said. Sans pulled up his hoodie and left the bar, Grillby's cackling laugh getting quieter the further he walked away from the bar.

* * *

Frisk sat along the river of Snowdin, staring at the water rushing by. She shared a cinnamon bun with the Snowman, whom she visited frequently. He couldn't move, and he had given her a piece of him to take with her through her journey. Surprisingly, the snow piece did not melt at all, and she had given it back to him when she returned to Snowdin. When he received the piece, he revealed that Frisk's determination in carrying the snow piece through the Underground had seeped into the snow piece. He was able to live all of Frisk's experiences that she had through the Underground. The snowman thanked her for providing him with the ability to see the rest of the Underground through her memories and stated that she did not need to see him anymore. Frisk, however, refused to comply with the Snowman's request and came back to visit him occasionally.

"Forgive me, Frisk," Snowman said. "I was unaware your memories would transfer to me. Your determination must be extremely powerful. If you feel like I have been intruding on your thoughts and memories, you may remove the snow piece from me." Frisk assure the snowman that it was quite alright, and that she had already been sharing her experiences with everyone regardless. "Your feelings of determination are the most powerful I've ever seen. However, there is another, stronger feeling, I keep sensing in your memories that I feel we should discuss." Frisk froze. She knew what it was; her feelings for Sans.

"I guess I can't really hide that, huh," Frisk laughed. "I have already told my other four best friends about it, but yes… I'm in love with Sans. I just really, really admire him. He's amazing." She talked more about all the things she loved about him. His love for his brother, his ability to make everyone laugh, and his deep view of the world. "You know… Even though he's always cracking jokes and making people laugh, I feel like… There's a deep sadness inside of him that he tries to hide from everyone. I really felt it the last time we were together at MTT Resort. There's pain behind that smile. I want to help him, to try and get him to open up about it, but I don't think he's ever really opened up to anyone before. I want to be that person for him, but I don't want to push it on him if he's not ready."

"If you're honest about your feelings Frisk, maybe you will find in time that he will come to be honest with his feelings as well." Frisk froze. The thought of confessing to Sans made her nauseous. What if he rejects her? She would want to flee the Underground but the only way for her to do that is if she…

No. She would never. She reset twice for a reason.

"I don't want to ruin our friendship. I'm just going to keep this inside me for as long as I can. It's ok now, we're friends, we see each other and talk occasionally."

"Occasionally? I would expect, as someone who is currently living with him, that you would be talking to him a lot more than occasionally." Frisk's smile disappeared. Even though she did live with him, he was so busy with work that he would be gone until late at night, and Frisk would always be asleep when he came back. She tried to stay up once or twice to at least catch him coming home, but she never could stay up. "I think there are ways to talk to him even though you can't see each other." She thought about it, then realized she never even got his phone number. Does Sans even have a phone?

"Is it weird for me to ask for his phone number? I don't want him to think I'm like trying to make a move or something."

"Frisk, you live with him and have Undyne and Papyrus's phone numbers. It's not weird at all."

"I know, I'm just overthinking everything, this is why I can't have feelings for anyone." Frisk tried to hide in her sweater. "I know! I'll just ask Paps for Sans's number, then it won't be weird at all." The Snowman shot her a look. "Ok, ok, fine, I'll talk to him myself, geez."

"You've helped me experience the world, Frisk, the least I can do is help you experience love." Frisk blushed madly and thanked the Snowman for his company and advice. She headed back to the house to leave a note for Sans when he got home.


	13. Chapter 13

It was 3 am. Sans immediately sheathed his blue hoodie, throwing it onto the table next to his pet rock. Undyne was fast asleep, which meant that Papyrus and Frisk must also have knocked out. Sans sighed. He hadn't really talked to any of his close friends since sentry duty started to pick up. He had to make sure he got less hours or quit one of his many jobs. He walked to the kitchen to reach for a bottle of ketchup. Upon reaching the fridge, he saw a new note attached to the fridge. No one ever left notes on the fridge. Curious, he picked up the note.

 _Hi Sans! It's Frisk. I miss seeing you. Hope work isn't too bad. I cooked with Paps and Undyne today. I tweaked their recipe a little bit, hopefully its actually edible XD. Also, I just realized I don't have your phone number. Here's mine, in case you need to reach me for an emergency. -Frisk :) P.S. Here's your joke of the day: What did one statue say to the other statue. Is-stat-chu!_

Sans chuckled to himself. _She's so cute_ , Sans thought. In the fridge right next to a bottle of ketchup was a green container with "Sans" labeled on it. He was a little scared to try the spaghetti, as it was Papyrus and Undyne's recipe, but decided he would give it a shot for Frisk. He took one bite. _Holy shit,_ Sans thought. _This is amazing._ The sauce was infused with three different kinds of cheese. The pasta in the spaghetti was _al dente_ , softer on the outside but firm in the middle. It even had a slight crunch. There were different kinds of herbs and spices mixed throughout the dish. Even the steak that was used for the spaghetti was cooked to perfection, and it was extremely juicy when he bit down into it. He wolfed down the entire container of spaghetti in less than 5 minutes. God, he missed seeing her. All he wanted to do was sit down with her and talk about what was on his mind; the only problem was, his mind was only filled with her. He obviously couldn't talk to her about how much he liked her. That would be embarrassing, especially if she did not like him back. He picked up a pen and started writing back to her on a note then went upstairs and knocked out in his bed.

Frisk woke up bright and early to go shopping for more ingredients. She had forgotten how much she loved cooking. Papyrus and Undyne had absolutely loved her steak spaghetti last night, so she went out to buy more ingredients. On her way out, she noticed a note by Sans's pet rock.

 _dearest frisk, i thought you would like to know i destroyed that spaghetti you made last night. i normally don't eat anything made by papyrus or undyne. their food makes me want to un-die. your spaghetti gave me faith in humanity again. ty. i also realize i've been neglecting our friendship. stupid sentry duty. you'd think they'd send someone other than a lazy skeleton to do this. anyway. come by the waterfall station. i'll ditch work just for you. seeya soon. -your fave bonehead, sans. ps heres my number in case you need it._

Frisk's heart skipped. He liked the spaghetti? She went to the sink. The container she had labeled "Sans" was completely empty. She was happy and determined to make another dish he would love. She decided she would head to Waterfall after she went shopping.

* * *

Sans sat back at his sentry station in Waterfall. Would Frisk come hang out with him? She seemed like she always had so many other plans; he would not be surprised if she already had agreed to spend time with someone else. His phone rang.

"Hello?" Sans answered.

"Hey, um," The voice answered. "Is your refrigerator running?" Sans chuckled.

"Nice try Frisk, I've heard that one a million times." He heard laughter from around the corner and Frisk popped out from behind it.

"Just testing to make sure you didn't give me some weird hotline for idiot babies or something." Frisk smiled. "So, Mr. Sentry, I hear you're planning on playing hooky today."

"Didn't I tell you?" Sans said, linking his arm with Frisk's. "I already _hooked_ a human today. Gave me the day off for it. Come on, let's go slack off together."

Sans led Frisk to an area in Waterfall overlooking the rest of the Underground. King Asgore's castle was in view and the crystals glowed so brightly, lighting up every path. The last time Frisk was here, she couldn't stop thinking about what that bunny had said at Grillby's. Now, all she could think about was how much she loved spending time with Sans.

"So," Sans said, laying back with his eyes closed. "How's life in the Underground been?" Frisk went on and on about all the new friends she had met. She talked of how she had befriended the shopkeepers and that they offer her discounts in exchange for meals. Her and Alphys had been hard at work writing real human history books and distributing them to the library in Snowdin. She had even written a couple of crosswords and junior jumbles for the newspaper. She was doing so much and was so enthusiastic talking about all the new activities she'd done and new friends she'd made. Sans could listen to her talk for hours. He laughed.

"You're amazing, you know that?" Sans said. He was shocked. He had said that without thinking. He looked away in embarrassment.

"Aww, thanks. You're not too bad yourself." Frisk winked, then laughed. She loved teasing him. He relaxed. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to grab her face and kiss her. She looked so beautiful against the glow of the ceiling crystals. He caught himself staring.

"So uh," Sans said, trying to change the topic. "How's the newspaper been?"

"We've been working on adding a new kind of newspaper column, actually," Frisk said. "We put a silhouette in the paper and then give three facts about a monster, then you have to guess who it is off the three clues. The correct answer is on the last page."

"Sounds awesome Frisk," Sans said, sitting up. "I'll have to see when the first column is out."

"Actually, I was wondering… Would you be willing to be our first monster?" Sans was surprised, not expecting Frisk to say that to him.

"Of course, Frisk, I'd be honored. I have to give you three facts about myself then, don't I?"

"No, I'm not gonna put 'pun-lover' on there. It's too obvious."

"Alright then," Sans said. "How about some really obscure facts no one really knows about me." Frisk perked up. She wanted to know everything about Sans and used this as an opportunity to ask.

"Ok," Frisk said. "Shoot." Sans tried to speak, but his phone rang. It was Papyrus.

"BROTHER!" Frisk could hear Papyrus's voice from where she was sitting. "Where are you?! Your post has been empty for a while!" Sans sighed.

"I'll be right there, I just took a break, calm down." Sans hung up the phone. "I guess duty calls. Literally." He got up from where he was sitting and dusted off his shorts. "Here, Frisk. Take this. It's the key to my workshop. It's behind the house. Maybe we can find some fun facts about me to put in the paper after sorting through all the stuff in there. I've still got another break today. I'll sneak off and meet you there in a little bit." Frisk nodded and grabbed the key. She put it on her keychain.

 _A workshop?_ Frisk thought. _I've never seen anything that looks close to a workshop in the house before_ … She stared at the key. This was her opportunity to get to know Sans on a deeper level. She wanted to know more about him than anything. She wanted to know everything about him. She whipped around, but Sans seemed to be long gone. She set off back towards Snowdin, eagerly awaiting what she would find in Sans's workshop.


	14. Chapter 14

Frisk waited until Papyrus and Undyne left the house. It seemed like Sans had never shown Papyrus this part of the house before, so she didn't want to accidentally give his secret away if he was hiding it. She slipped to the back of the workshop and put the key in the door. It opened.

This room seemed very different from every other room in the house. It had tile floors and a green wall. It was like a laboratory of some sort. She knew that Sans was into quantum physics, but never imagined him as one to delve deep into researching it. There were blueprints on the table written with strange symbols she couldn't understand. In the drawer was a badge of some sort. There was a photo of Sans with her, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, and Mettaton, which made her smile. He had kept the picture they took together the first night she moved into the skelebro's home right in his secret workshop. Behind that photo was a photo of Sans standing next to three people she didn't recognize. He had never talked about any of these people before. Was he part of a research team? She couldn't picture him in a laboratory conducting experiments. In her mind, she swapped that blue hoodie out for a lab coat on him. It was strange to imagine him wearing anything other than that blue hoodie.

Something else caught her eye. A giant machine covered by a tarp was looming eerily at the end of the workshop. Curious, she walked over to it and lifted the cover. It was a machine of some sorts. It seems like it was used recently, as the dust was empty on the keyboard but present on other parts of the machine that wouldn't usually be touched. She wasn't sure if she should be messing around with the machine, but she reached out for a button anyway.

"I see you've noticed the machine." Sans said out of nowhere. Frisk jumped. She hadn't heard him come in and was startled by his sudden appearance. "Frisk, there's something I wanted to ask you… You're a time traveler, aren't you?" Frisk froze. It's true that she had gone back in time twice, but she didn't consider herself a time traveler. It just so happened that she was able to on two instances. She explained to Sans that she had gone back in time twice, but only once she passed him at the Judgement Hall. For some reason, both times, Sans had known that Frisk had gone back in time and told her two secret code words to give him if she ever went back again, confirming to Sans that Frisk was the one messing with timelines.

"Wait," Sans said. "You've only reset twice?" He was confused. He had been monitoring time for a while and had seen several jumps, not just the times Frisk reset. "I guess I should explain myself."

Sans started from the beginning. He confessed to Frisk that he had lived on the surface many years ago. At the time, he was an aspiring young scientist. Papyrus had not been old enough to remember much yet, but the two of them were living on their own. Sans had been taking care of Papyrus. It was not long before Sans met W.D. Gaster, the royal scientist at the time. Gaster had been impressed with Sans's intelligence and invited him to become part of his official research team. He motioned to the picture, the one next to the picture with Frisk. Aside from Sans, there was another skeleton in the middle of the three lab assistants. This had to be Dr. Gaster. During the course of their experiments, they had figured out a way to disguise themselves as humans and explore the surface. Even Asgore did not know of this. Gaster had been using this research team to carry out observations on the surface. For a time, Sans assimilated himself in a small village on the surface and had befriended a few people on the surface.

"I lived on the surface for a while," Sans said. "Even though I wasn't really human, it was nice to get to meet people. Humans must not be that bad, I thought for a while. At least, I thought that until Asriel came through the barrier carrying a human. It was absolutely brutal." Sans looked down. "The way the humans so viciously attacked Asriel without letting him explain himself, of course, I knew Asriel would never murder his brother in cold blood, but the humans weren't having it. I took Papyrus and hid back underground, afraid that the humans would discover my identity. I went back to Gaster's laboratory to report on what had happened, but when I got there, he and the rest of the lab assistants were gone. The only thing left was a final report from him. He was doing some kind of experiment with determination. I tried to follow up on his research to find out what happened to him, but he was gone. All I found were traces of my old mentor scattered across time and space. I lost my life on the surface and my mentor in the span of a few days." Sans shut his eyes as if he was in pain. This was it, Frisk thought. This is the pain he tries to mask with his humor. It's all out in the open now.

Sans continued. He spoke of how he continued to work in the laboratory and how Alphys had then been appointed as the royal scientist. Alphys had been researching determination while Sans was researching time and space, trying to find a way to piece Gaster back together. Soon after Alphys had done the determination experiments on a flower, Sans's timeline monitor had been going off more than it ever did before. Someone was messing with the timelines.

"That's the machine behind you," Sans pointed to the machine that Frisk had uncovered. "It monitors timelines." He continued to speak of how often the timelines had been resetting and how, because of his research, he could always tell when a reset happened. Every reset put his research toward finding Gaster farther and farther. "It was so frustrating, having to start over and over again. After a while, something clicked in my brain. What's the point? All the work I had been putting in kept going to waste after each reset. I was never going to find Gaster. Nothing was worth it anymore. Frankly, I didn't care anymore. Everything got boring to me. I was swallowed by my existential crisis and my hatred for humanity." Sans stared at the two pictures in his drawer. He picked up the one with Frisk. "Until… you came. Frisk, I've never seen any human like you before. You're the first human to never want to murder any monsters. You've befriended all of us. You… gave me hope again."

Frisk was tearing up. She felt all of Sans' emotions pour into her. His pain, suffering, sadness, and newfound hope. She had no idea that she had really affected him this way. He was even deeper than she ever imagined.

"Sans," Frisk said. "Whatever you're going through, whatever happens, I'll be here for you, ok? You don't have to carry this burden alone."

"It's just really confusing right now," Sans said. "You're not the one messing with the timelines?" Frisk responded that she only jumped back in time twice. Only after her conversation with Sans did she see a glowing yellow light at the end of the hallway. She touched the yellow light and was sent back to before she talked to Sans. In this first time reset, Sans could tell she had gone back, and instructed her to say a secret codeword to him the next time she saw him. Frisk, however, was determined to try and face Asgore and escape through the barrier. What happened next caused her to reset a second time. "Frisk… what happened those two times?"

She took a breath. What happened caused her to come back to the Underground and resign herself to a life away from home. Upon her meeting Asgore, she tried to reason with him, but he wouldn't listen to her. She figured if she weakened him enough, she could try and convince him to find another way to get everyone out. Shy of one blow, she stopped fighting Asgore and tried to talk to him. Before she could, however, a third entity appeared from nowhere and killed Asgore where he stood. Shocked and horrified, the flower she met on her first journey absorbed the six human souls and tried to attack her. She ran away to the glowing light, and reset once again, to before Sans spoke to her. She then spoke to Sans, giving him the secret code word. He then responded that there was another code word to give him if she reset again. She tried again, but it ended up giving the same outcome. It was then that Frisk realized there was no way to escape without killing Asgore, so she turned back and decided to stay in the Underground.

Sans was shocked. She hadn't been the one messing with the timelines. Who was it then? He looked at her again. She was the embodiment of pacifism, even refusing to kill the one thing standing in the way between her and freedom.

"I want to go home," Frisk said. "But I'm not killing anyone for it. There has to be another way. Sans smiled and brushed the hair out of her face.

"I'll help you," Sans said. "We can do it together."

The feeling of connecting to Sans's soul filled Frisk with determination.


	15. Chapter 15

Falling.

That's all Frisk felt. Darkness and falling. A silhouette of what looked like another human approached her. A human wearing a green and brown striped shirt. He was holding a knife. He lunged at her.

She jolted awake, shaking and crying. The nightmare only lasted for a little bit, but it was enough to terrify her. She could feel herself dying. Her heart was pounding, and she was hyperventilating. She was so focused on what had happened she didn't realize she had woken Sans up.

"Ungh," Sans mumbled. "Are you ok… what's wrong…" He was half asleep, but still awoke to make sure Frisk was ok.

"Just a nightmare," Frisk said. She still felt the chills. "A really vivid nightmare." Sans sat up.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Sans offered. He normally would never voluntarily get out of bed at 3:30 am, but Frisk seemed so afraid and shaken that he tried to force himself awake.

"I felt like I was dying," Frisk said. "It felt so real, like a knife cutting my chest open. I'm so scared." Sans figured she needed some serious comfort.

"Come here," Sans beckoned, leading Frisk to his bed. He wrapped his arms around her. He didn't care if it was obvious that he was in love with her. He just wanted her to feel better. "It'll be ok, just breathe." Frisk buried her face into Sans's white shirt. Even though he was all bone, his embrace comforted her. She calmed down a little bit but was still feeling terrified.

"I saw a boy," Frisk said. "Wearing a striped shirt like mine, but different colors. He came at me and cut me open. The pain felt so real, I thought I was dying." Sans rubbed her back.

"It's alright Frisk, it was only a dream. I won't let anything hurt you. I promise." He thought of the promise he made to the woman at the door. At first, he only followed that promise because he felt that he owed that woman for listening to him. Now, this promise was all his own. He would never let anyone hurt Frisk as long as he was alive. "Come on, lie down. Close your eyes. I'll be here, okay? Just go to sleep." Frisk nodded as tears continued to stream down her face. Sans reached for her cheek and wiped away her tears. Frisk breathed deeply and tried to go to sleep but couldn't. Sans laid down next to her. He could tell she was having trouble sleeping. He wrapped his arm around her body and squeezed her. Frisk squeezed his arm back.

"Thank you, Sans," Frisk said. "I feel safe with you." Sans squeezed her again. _I love you_ , Sans thought, but was too scared to admit it. They drifted to sleep in each other's arms.

* * *

Frisk woke up entangled in Sans's sheets. He had already left for the day to go to work. Realizing she slept in Sans's bed, she hid herself under the sheets in embarrassment.

 _Did that really happen?_ Frisk thought. _Sans and I just… slept together._ She thought of how nice his shirt felt against her face and how warm she felt in his embrace. She couldn't take it. She liked Sans so much that the thought of him being so close to her made her chest explode. She figured it was a one-time thing and tried later that night to sleep by herself and pretend that never happened.

It didn't work. The nightmares kept happening for the next couple of days and each one seemed more vivid than the last. She ended up only being able to sleep if Sans was next to her. _How embarrassing_ , Frisk thought. _He must think I'm some huge crybaby_. Sans, on the other hand, felt conflicted. He loved that Frisk was sleeping in his bed with him every night but wanted the nightmares to stop. He hated seeing her so terrified every night. He wanted to make it stop, but he didn't know how.

After a few days, it became routine for Frisk to just sleep in Sans's bed. She couldn't bring herself to sleep alone as the nightmares kept returning. When she was in Sans's bed, however, the nightmares seemed to stop. She never really did formally ask if she could start sleeping in his bed, she kind of just did it one day and he never told her to stop.

Sans couldn't stop thinking about Frisk. She had kept having nightmares and could only fall asleep if she was in his bed. Even when she was sleeping, she was shaking and hyperventilating in her sleep. He needed someone to talk to and set off for the door to the Ruins as he usually did.

He knocked on the door and told a joke he had been practicing to himself through the door. To his relief, the mysterious woman knocked back and listened to his joke. They told jokes through the door for a few minutes. Sans then leaned against the door.

At the same time, Frisk had wandered through the forest for a walk. She couldn't figure out why she was having so many nightmares about a human she had never met before. Why were they so vivid? It legitimately felt as if she had been stabbed in the chest with a knife whenever she woke up. Over and over, she saw a red heart split apart. Her soul felt like it was tearing itself apart. Not realizing how far she had walked, she noticed the door to the Ruins in the distance. _I wonder how Toriel is doing_ , Frisk said. _Maybe I should check up on her._ As she was about to pull out her phone, she noticed Sans leaning against the door.

"A lot has happened since I talked to you last, huh," Frisk heard Sans say. "I kept your promise. I protected the human." From where she was standing, she couldn't hear any response from the other side of the door. She inched closer to a tree closer to the door, hoping Sans wouldn't notice her. "I guess I should've come back here more, huh. There's a lot of things I've been keeping in. Haven't really been able to really talk to anyone about my feelings." Frisk was surprised. Hadn't been able to talk to anyone? Had those sessions together talking about their past and deepest thoughts meant nothing to Sans? Frisk was heartbroken. "You've always been such a great person to listen to, I really appreciate that you always are here for me to talk to." Sans looked relieved and gave a huge smile. Frisk couldn't listen anymore. She thought they had shared a special connection and that Sans only confided in her. She felt herself tearing up and ran away from the Ruins.

Sans had no idea she was hiding behind the tree.

"What's on your mind," The voice spoke from behind the door. "I am always all ears."

"I think… no I don't think, I know. I've fallen in love with the human." There was a squeal from behind the door.

"Oh! She is quite wonderful is she not? I'm so happy for you! She would make you very happy!" Sans stopped the woman before she could continue.

"No, I can't be with her," Sans continued. "I don't even know if she would feel the same way about me. She deserves way better than me I can't ruin her like that. Besides, I can't do anything to help her." Sans explained how Frisk had been having recurrent nightmares the past few days and only had been able to sleep if she was sleeping in Sans's bed. How much it hurt to see her writhing with fear every night. He held her close until she could fall asleep in his arms. It was a bittersweet feeling. The woman responded by telling Sans that he had to tell her how he felt about her. "You and everyone else are all the same. I told you, I'm not ruining what relationship I have with her. I'm ok with things being this way."

"You must be so afraid of getting hurt," The voice said. "All those years of sleeping around catching up to you?" Sans turned red with embarrassment and told the woman to fuck off. He then felt bad cursing at someone he had been confiding to for years. He heard a laugh from the other side of the door. "Listen friend, I'm sure everyone else has been telling you the same thing. Be honest with her. And then maybe you and her can find a way to make the nightmares stop together. You won't be able to do that if both of you are holding your feelings back."

Sans made an agreement with himself: that night, when both of them were asleep together, he would confess to her.

"Thank you." Sans set back toward Snowdin.


	16. Chapter 16

Frisk opened the door to Papyrus's room.

"Paps," Frisk said, trying to hide tears. "Can I… Can I sleep in here tonight?" Papyrus was confused. Why did Frisk want to sleep in his room and not Sans's? Had something happened?

"Are you ok Frisk?" Papyrus said. "What's wrong?" For some reason, Frisk could not bring herself to tell Papyrus what was wrong. Although she had confided in him before, she felt too embarrassed about how much she liked Sans. She also didn't want to worry him about her nightmares. She struggled internally for a few seconds on whether or not she should tell Papyrus what was going on.

"Actually, I changed my mind, sorry to bother you!" Frisk swiftly shut the door, leaving a confused skeleton on the other side. _I need a shower,_ Frisk thought. _I just need to stand against hot water and breathe._ She walked into Sans's room and grabbed a towel. Rushing to the bathroom, she shut the door and closed her eyes. She undressed and got into the shower, turning it to the "hot" setting.

 _I was so stupid to think Sans and I had a connection. Him and I are just friends and nothing more will ever come from our relationship. I need to accept that._ But she couldn't. Thoughts of Sans's relationships with various girls creeped into her head again. She could never bring as much excitement and fun into his life like other girls had. She started sobbing in the shower. Frisk loved him so much, more than he would ever know. She knew she was never going to kill the king but staying down in the Underground with an unrequited love seemed so terrible. Was she really willing to stay down here for the rest of her life? She didn't know. After what seemed like an eternity of shower-sobbing, she finally turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. On her way out, she slipped and fell down, causing her to cry even more.

Sans had just gotten home when he heard a thud from upstairs. It had come from the bathroom. Did someone slip? Were they okay? He rushed upstairs and opened the bathroom door, which was unlocked.

"Hey," He said, opening the door without thinking. "Are you okay?" He froze. Frisk was naked on the ground, having just slipped out of the shower. Both of their faces became red with embarrassment.

"Get out!" Frisk screamed. Sans apologized profusely and shut the door. He went to his room and tried to shake the embarrassment off, but he couldn't. He only saw a glimpse of her, but that split second was now etched in his mind and he couldn't stop thinking about her. _Get a hold of yourself, Sans!_ He thought, mentally slapping himself. _Stop thinking about it, this is Frisk, this is highly inappropriate…_ The door swung open.

"I'm sorry-!" He shouted towards the door. Upon looking up, he realized it was only Papyrus. "Oh, sorry bro, ah, what's up?"

"Brother," Papyrus started. "I think there is something wrong with Frisk. She came into my room today asking if she could sleep there instead and then backed out. Did something happen between you two?" Sans was puzzled. Frisk had been sleeping soundly the past couple of days in his bed. The more they slept together, the less the night terrors affected her.

"No," Sans replied. He thought it was best not to talk about Frisk's night terrors if she had not spoken to Papyrus about them. "She seemed fine to me today. Maybe she's just stressed or something." Papyrus turned to leave the room.

"Ok, if you or Frisk need me, I'll be right next door." He exited. At this moment, Frisk returned from the shower. She couldn't even look up at Sans. She must have been embarrassed about what happened, too. Sans tried to speak to her, but the image of her naked body creeped into his mind again, and he became flustered. He tried to think of a pun to diffuse the situation, but nothing came out.

"Don't," Frisk said. "I just wanna forget that happened." She had already changed into her pajamas and went to the mattress that had been unused for a few days now.

"Uh," Sans said. "Not gonna sleep with me…?" He tried not to sound disappointed, but he did anyway.

"No, I should probably try to sleep on my own. I've been ok for a few days so I might be able to sleep by myself again."

Frisk was wrong. Her crying and screaming woke Sans up again. He tried to go over to the mattress to comfort her, but she refused to let him near her. She told him to go back to sleep and not to worry about her, but he couldn't sleep with her screaming and crying. As much as he wanted to carry her to his bed, wrap her in his arms, and tell her everything was going to be alright, he listened to her request. Frisk was having nightmares again. The same stabbing, soul-cracking feeling accompanied her dream. This time, the nightmare was more vivid. The face of the mystery boy was etched into her mind and she couldn't sleep. All she saw was the clear image of a boy with devil-red eyes out to get her every time she closed her eyes. She wanted to crawl into Sans's bed, but didn't. She would have to get used to sleeping without him and had to get over him somehow.

Neither of them slept that night.

* * *

A few days later, Papyrus called the others for an emergency meeting. While Frisk was out with the Snowman and Sans was at work, Alphys, Undyne, and Mettaton joined Papyrus in the living room of his home. He explained that something was wrong between Sans and Frisk and that he could tell by the way they were acting the past couple of days. Frisk and Sans had been happy and hung out together a lot, but for some reason, neither of them wanted to speak to each other for the past few days. Papyrus mentioned that Frisk wanted to sleep in his room a few nights ago and that she seems a lot more tired and anxious than usual.

"So," Undyne said. "The obvious solution is to stick both of them in a room somewhere and not let them out until they solve their differences."

"That won't work," Alphys said. "Sans can just teleport out of his room or something. We need to lock them in a more secure place. Papyrus, how do your brother's teleportation powers work anyway?"

"Well," Papyrus said. "He can't go very far, so we'd have to trap them in a place where it's hard to get out of."

"I've got it!" Mettaton said. "Boat ride." Everyone looked puzzled. "If we get the two of them on a boat ride, the only place Sans will be able to teleport is to water. And we can tell the river man not to stop until they make up." The other three agreed with Mettaton's plan. They figured that they were not going to hang out together. Undyne suggested that they plan a hangout with them tomorrow and then all suddenly bail so it's just the two of them.

"And," Undyne added. "If they try to go back, I'll tell them that I already paid the river man and that they have to go or they'll be wasting my money."

"Great idea!" Alphys said, writing everything down in her "notes" section on her phone. "They'll have to talk then. We won't stop until everything between the two of them is okay again!"

Pleased with their plot, the four monsters started cheering. Papyrus went into the kitchen to get some of Frisk's steak spaghetti, which he had been working on perfecting. The four of them shared Frisk's delicious spaghetti recipe and turned on the TV to watch movies together.


	17. Chapter 17

"Meet at the boat dock in Snowdin at 3!" Mettaton had texted everyone. Everyone responded saying they were going, including Frisk. Sans sighed. He was trying to avoid Frisk due to his embarrassment the other day but figured it wouldn't be too bad if everyone else was there too. He spun a hot dog on his finger. _I really need to quit this job_ , Sans thought, _No one wants to buy a hot dog in the Hotlands_.

Sans made his way back to Snowdin. It was way to far to teleport from Hotland to Snowdin, so he got to the middle of Waterfall and teleported from there. He got to the boat dock, only to see that only Frisk was standing there. She hadn't tried to talk to him in days. That shower event must have really embarrassed her. He had a right to be embarrassed, he figured, as that image was burned into his brain and he couldn't stop thinking about it. Fantasies about his dearest friend began to creep in. _Play it cool, Sans,_ he thought. _Don't make this more awkward than it has to be_.

"Hey," Sans greeted Frisk, trying to act like everything was fine. "How- how are you?"

Frisk couldn't look at Sans. She was convinced Sans didn't need her and that she didn't belong in the Underground. Meeting his eyes would only cause her to cry. She hadn't slept in days because of her nightmares. Bags encircled the bottoms of her eyelids. She figured she had to say something to him.

"Hi, Sans," Frisk said, never looking up. "I guess we're the first ones here, huh." Sans nodded. The air between them was so tense that every second they went without talking created knots in both of their stomachs. Suddenly, they were getting texts from everyone.

MTT: Oh dear! I seemed to have forgotten that I had a show scheduled for today! I won't be able to make it!

Sans stared at the text. It was okay, as long as everyone else was there too, he would be fine. One by one, however, the excuses started piling in through the group chat.

Dr. A: I'm sorry! I promised Asgore I would have tea with him today, can't say no to the king! Have fun without me!

The Great Paps: I forgot something as well! The Great Papyrus had a cooking lesson scheduled with Undyne today and we don't want the meat to spoil! Sorry!

Undying: And don't you dare think about skipping the boat ride. I paid for that so you're gonna go on it!

Sans sighed. _Those fuckers,_ he thought. _This has Papyrus written all over it._ He opened his mouth to protest getting on the boat, but Frisk interrupted him.

"I'd feel bad," She started. "If Undyne ended up wasting her money on this boat ride with no one to go on it. We should do it for her." Sans nodded. He got onto the boat. He reached his hand out for Frisk to take, but she declined. "I'm fine. I can get on the boat myself." Sans felt like an arrow went through his soul. Did she really hate him that much?

The boat set out. The first five minutes of the boat ride felt like torture for both of them. Neither of them spoke. They hadn't really talked to each other in days, for different reasons. Sans was sweating. He just wanted to say something, anything to her to make things between them okay again. He had tried to apologize for the bathroom incident, but she brushed it off. On the other side of the boat, Frisk couldn't stop thinking about her nightmares. She just wanted to crawl into Sans's bed every night but couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't special to him. She had just been another one of the many girls that he had gotten into his bed. The thought made her want to vomit. She wasn't special. She never had been and never will. This whole time, she thought that because she was the only human, that she could make a difference in the monsters' lives. She thought wrong. She hadn't made any significant contributions to anyone. She was just freeloading at the skelebro's house.

"Listen," Sans said. "I-"

"Don't," Frisk said. The energy it took to speak also let out a tear or two. She didn't care. "I don't really want to talk right now."

"Frisk, let me talk. We haven't spoken in days. You haven't slept in my bed since that day I walked in on you in the bathroom. If it's about that, I'm sorry-"

"Of course," She snapped back at him. "Of course, it's about not having me in your bed anymore. Am I just another girl you're going to try to sleep with? That's all I am to you?"

"What in the fuck gave you that idea?! Ok, yes, I have an extensive history with women, but don't you think if I tried to get close to you just to have sex with you, it would have happened already?"

"Would have happened already?! The fuck do you take me for? I don't sleep around like you do!"

"Listen to me! I just want to figure out why you hate me so much!" Sans was screaming at this point. His left eye glowed fiercely. The repressed emotions he had been holding in came out. He didn't care how desperate and angry he sounded; he just wanted to know why she was so mad at him. He couldn't take it anymore. "I thought we were close Frisk. I don't know what I did to deserve this but I'm sorry, whatever it is. I can't stand not talking to you. I only want to talk to you all the time. I…" He stopped himself. He nearly confessed his feelings to her when she interrupted him.

"I heard you talking to someone in the woods," She said. "You were telling them about how you haven't been able to talk to anyone about your feelings. I got really upset. I thought I was the person you told everyone to. I thought I was special to you, that you shared things with me that you never shared with anyone. I guess I got kind of jealous. I'm not saying you can't confide in other people. I just thought I was your confidant. If there are some things you can't talk to me about, I'm sorry. I just want you to know that I'm always here to listen, whatever is on your mind. I won't judge you or make fun of you. But… It's okay if I'm not that person for you. I can't force anything." She tried to smile through her tears. This was it, Sans thought. There was only one way to fix this misunderstanding between them.

"I've told you everything Frisk," Sans said. His bones were shaking, and he felt sweat pooling on his skull. He gathered all the courage he could to finally say this to her. "Except one thing. The only thing I haven't been honest with you about is… my feelings."

"Your… feelings?"

"I go to the Ruins all the time to talk to that woman because I can't stop talking about how amazing you are. I couldn't tell the others about this, they only would have made fun of me. That's why I talked to the woman I've never seen before. You're always on my mind. I always want to be around you. I got really upset when you stopped sleeping with me because… I just wanted to hold you close every night. It made me so happy. I promise I never had any ill intentions. I just hated seeing you in mental torture every night. When you stopped, I felt like there was a huge empty space in my bed. I've never felt that before. Seeing and hearing you have those nightmares again made me feel pain I've never known before. I know none of this might sound genuine given my history with women, but Frisk… I really like you. I've had feelings for you for a really long time now. I've been afraid to tell you because I don't think you'll ever like me too. And I understand if you don't, I'm just a no-good, lazy, womanizing skeleton. If being friends is all you want, I'll accept it. It'll hurt for me for a while, but I'll get used to it. I just can't hold it in any longer. I had to tell you how I felt." There was silence. Frisk was shocked… he actually had feelings for her too? It was like some sort of dream. She wasn't sure if it was reality. Sans was afraid. She hadn't said anything yet. Did he mess up?

Frisk giggled. The giggles then turned into laughing, and then Frisk started howling. I knew it, Sans thought. She thinks I'm an idiot. I shouldn't have said anything. I want to just jump off this boat right now.

"W-what's so funny?" Sans said. "I really poured out my heart and soul to you, you know. Don't laugh."

"I'm sorry," Frisk said, laughing through her tears. "I just, everything before this seems so silly now. All the jealousy and anger I had toward myself while this whole time, you had the same feelings for me too." Sans perked up. Did he just hear that correctly?

"So then, you…?"

"Yes bonehead, I like you too." Sans was filled with the most joy he had ever felt before. He couldn't remember the last time he had really been in love, if ever. At this moment, the woman he loved, the one sitting right across from him, had shared the same feelings he did. He could die right there, and he would have been ok with it. "Say something idiot!" Frisk playfully punched his shoulder.

"Frisk," Sans said. "Would you like… tibia part of my life... As my girlfriend?" She howled with laughter more so than before.

"That is so like you to ask me out through a pun. But yes, I accept." Frisk never felt happier in her life than before. She was Sans's girlfriend as of that moment. The title made butterflies enter her stomach. "I can't believe I'm dating a skeleton!" She laughed. Sans held her close to him with a tight grip.

"You'll never be lonely again."

"Don't you mean bone-ly?"

"No, Frisk. I mean it. You'll never have to be alone ever again. I'm here for you."

He lifted her chin to face his. They closed their eyes. Sans's mouth met hers. Her lips were so soft and warm, he thought. He wanted to lock himself in that moment for the rest of his life.


	18. Chapter 18

Alphys, Mettaton, Undyne, and Papyrus squealed. They had been waiting for the two of them to get together since they found out they had feelings for each other. All their hard work had finally paid off. Frisk and Sans stood in front of everyone, embarrassed that they made such a big deal about it.

"Come on guys," Sans said, embarrassed. "It's not a big deal. Frisk and I just happen to be dating now." Mettaton was dancing and posing dramatically as the rest of the group cheered for them.

"WE MUST celebrate this joyous union!" Mettaton said. Frisk swore she could see sparkles coming from him as he twirled around. "I propose a double date with Undyne and Alphys!"

"METTATON!" Alphys said, stuttering. She fumbled over her words "D-date with Undyne? I-" Undyne clearly was just as embarrassed as Alphys in this situation.

"Yeah!" Undyne snapped. "What do you mean date?!" She said angrily. Frisk laughed at Mettaton's teasing and Alphys and Undyne's embarrassment. She loved all her friends very dearly. Sans took her hand and led her to the kitchen.

"Hey," He said to Frisk. "It's pretty noisy in here. Wanna get out of here?" He smiled. Frisk nodded and took Sans's hand. He teleported them out of his house.

When Frisk opened her eyes, she was in a room with a dinner table in the center. There were two plates on the table with a lit candle in the center.

"I had Grillby prep this for me," Sans said. "I wanted our first _real_ date to be just the two of us." Sans pulled the chair out for Frisk and she sat down, overjoyed at the surprise date Sans had prepared for her.

"Real date?" Frisk replied. "You mean the time you took me out to MMT resort wasn't a real date?"

"Oh, it was a real date, I promise you that. But this is our first real date as… you know… a couple. I don't have to hide my feelings anymore. Now I can just stare at your cute face as much as I want and not worry."

"Sans, you're embarrassing me." Frisk laughed. "If you're staring at my face, I'm staring at yours."

"A staring contest? You're on, cupcake."

"Ew, cupcake? Come on, Sans, you can give me a better pet name than cupcake."

"Ok, you're right. Cupcake was _half-baked_." Sans smirked. Frisk groaned but laughed at the pun anyway. "How about… my love." He grabbed Frisk's face and kissed her sweetly, then pulled back. She wanted to kiss him more.

"Hey, come back here…" Frisk pulled Sans back by his shirt and kissed him again, and again. They became lost in each other's lips.

"I've never felt this way about anyone before." Sans whispered. Frisk figured he had said this to many girls before, but she could tell that this time, he meant it.

"Alright, order up!" Grillby burst through the door, breaking Sans and Frisk's kiss. Grillby started laughing. "It's so cute to see you to together. I mean finally. Sans wouldn't stop sulking in here about you for weeks!" Sans blushed in embarrassment.

"Fuck off Grillby," Sans said. "I didn't even want to tell you."

"Buddy, you didn't have to. It was written all over your face!" Grillby howled, then took their orders and set back toward the kitchen. Frisk was giggling.

"Just how long have you liked me, Sans?" She smiled at him.

"Uhh," Sans replied, scratching the back of his head. "Probably since you stepped into Snowdin. I can't remember exactly when. I just really started liking you when I saw how nice you were to my brother. Uh, I may have been jealous when you went on a date with him."

"What?! That soon!" Frisk laughed. "I can't believe you were jealous of me and Paps."

"Why are you laughing? Ok well, when did you like me?" Frisk then became embarrassed and thought of their first time hanging out at Grillby's with the three bunnies.

"Our conversation at Grillby's, where we were just sitting together and talking about everything. It was so easy to talk to you. I would have sat there and talked forever if those bunnies didn't interrupt us."

"Right, the bunnies… Listen Frisk, they mean nothing to me. They're just a part of my past now. You don't have to worry about them." Frisk laughed.

"I'm not worried anymore, silly. I mean, I was. I got upset because I realized in that moment that I had feelings for you, and I thought you would never like a girl like me because I wasn't as hot or sexy as the other girls you had been with."

"That's bullshit. Of course I think you're sexy." Sans spoke without thinking again. He felt embarrassed even saying the words out loud. Frisk was also caught off guard by Sans's comment. They were both so embarrassed that they didn't know what to say. At that moment, Grillby came out with their food.

"Order up," Grillby said, placing a steak on Sans's side and a plate of spaghetti on Frisk's side. "Enjoy lovebirds." Grilly dashed away.

"Spaghetti?" Sans said. "Haven't you had enough of that dish?"

"Nah," Frisk responded. "It reminds me of all of you. It's become my favorite dish." She slurped down the spaghetti with a smile on her face. Sans wolfed down his steak, too. Over dinner, they continued to crack jokes and talk about how their life in the Underground was going. "I was thinking Sans, that I probably should find a job soon."

"Job? You don't need a job. I have three. I can support you, you don't have to worry about money."

"I feel bad freeloading. I need to make myself useful somehow. You and Paps are both sentries and Undyne is the head of the Royal Guard. I need to start pulling my own weight." Sans sighed. He knew he couldn't stop her from trying to look for a job, so he decided to offer some suggestions.

"I mean, I _do_ run a hotdog stand in Hotland. And I've got an opening."

"Wouldn't it be weird having your girlfriend work for you?"

"Not if my girlfriend becomes the co-owner." Frisk was surprised.

"What? I can't just have you give me half the hotdog stand. I gotta start out as an employee, work my way up, that kind of stuff!"

"Well, I'm the boss and I can do what I want. You're now my co-owner. Besides, I wanted to take less hours at the hotdog stand anyway."

"You totally just want to work less. But… Thank you Sans. I don't know what to say. But I'm not gonna let that be my only job! I have to do my part!" Sans laughed. Frisk was shining with determination.

"You're so determined," Sans said, pulling Frisk closer to him. "And I love that about you." Sans kissed Frisk softly. "Come on, let's go home." Sans held Frisk in his embrace and teleported them both to his room after paying for their meal.

"No front door?" Frisk inquired.

"Too lazy. Besides. I want the rest of the night to be spent with only you." He kissed her on the cheek, and then on the lips. He carried her into his bed. "I missed having you in my bed."

"I missed being here." She continued to kiss him, melting into his arms with each kiss. Everything about this moment felt so right. He placed one hand on her hip and the other on her back. Suddenly, she felt something graze her lip. Sans started licking her lower lip between kisses. Caught off guard, Frisk gasped; Sans used this opportunity to insert his tongue into her mouth. Frisk tried to fight off his tongue with hers, but Sans dominated the inside of her mouth, exploring the inside and leaving no area untasted. Frisk melted even more and felt herself surrendering to Sans. The sounds of Sans's breathing became faster and sounded hungrier, and he started to lift Frisk's sweater up. His bony fingers touched Frisk's bare skin, causing her to jump.

"W-wait!" Frisk said, breaking the kiss. "P-please stop…" Sans backed off immediately, not wanting to go too far if Frisk didn't want to.

"Are you alright, Frisk?" Sans said, brushing her hair back. "Did you not like that?" Frisk couldn't think. Her heart was beating a hundred miles per hour.

"N-no, I did like that… A lot actually… I'm uh… not ready for any more yet." Frisk turned all different shades of red. Sans had no idea Frisk was a virgin, but these reactions made it clear to him.

"Oh, oh I'm sorry Frisk. We don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with."

"Thank you… I kind of just want to lay in bed with you and watch online videos… Is that okay?" Sans kissed the top of her forehead.

"Of course it's okay, my love. When I'm around my computer, I don't _byte_."

"Maybe we listen to my favorite artist, _A-Dell_."

"Wow. That reminds me, Frisk, since I know you're looking for another job, you should work for a keyboard factory. I hear they have a lot of _shifts_." Frisk and Sans laughed and told each other computer puns the rest of the night while in each other's arms.

"I love you."

"I love you too."


	19. Chapter 19

This was the happiest Frisk had been in a really long time. Sans was her boyfriend and all her friends were always with her, supporting her every goal. She had taken Sans's offer as the new co-owner of the Hotland hotdog stand and even picked up a second job waitressing at Grillby's. Sans thought Frisk looked cute in her waitress outfit. He came to Grillby's twice as often just to see her at work. Life was good. So why then, did Frisk continue to be haunted by the same recurring nightmare?

Sans noticed, too. He thought that Frisk sleeping in his bed would help alleviate some of the nightmares, but as the nights went on, it seemed like they were getting worse and worse. Nothing Sans did helped ease her pain. Although she was terrified every morning, she woke up with a smile, not wanting to worry Sans. Sans, however, knew that smile was just a façade and could see that she was in tremendous pain from these recurring nightmares. More bags developed under her eyes and she was getting more and more tired as the days continued.

Papyrus, Alphys, Undyne, and Mettaton were beginning to worry too. It became harder for Frisk to hide her night terrors, so she came clean to the four of them. They each tried their own way of helping reduce the nightmares. Papyrus had placed some of his action figures in Sans's room to provide Frisk protection at night. Mettaton recorded a lullaby for her to replay before she went to bed. Undyne offered to stand guard at Frisk's door until she fell asleep. Alphys built a machine to induce sleep waves into her brain. Frisk had no problem getting to sleep, but as soon as she did, the terrifying nightmare of the boy in the striped shirt killing her over and over manifested in her mind and she would wake up crying and screaming again. Sans didn't know what else to do. He was angry at himself. He promised her nothing would hurt her and that he would protect her, but it seemed like he was powerless against the nightmares. One morning, Sans decided to skip work and spend the day with Frisk.

"My love," Sans said. "I'm here. I'm all yours today, okay? I'm not leaving." Frisk scolded Sans and told him to go to work. "They'll manage without me. There aren't any humans coming down here any time soon." Frisk sat up, rubbing her eyes. The bags were even worse than they were before. "Do you want to talk about it, Frisk? Maybe it'll help. We might be able to find the cause of these nightmares."

Frisk took a breath. Every night, as soon as she fell asleep, she would see a boy in a striped shirt calling out to her. Her body was frozen, and she couldn't move. The boy would start cackling and then lunge at her with a knife. His face was clearly visible, and his dark red eyes were filled with bloodlust. It felt like she was really being stabbed and that her soul was tearing apart. She remembered seeing her soul leave her body and break into pieces, over and over.

"Do you know this boy? Is he someone you've met before?" Frisk tried to remember if she knew anyone who looked like that but couldn't. She had no idea who the boy was nor why he was showing up in her nightmares. Why were they so vivid and recurring? Every morning, it felt like she was being revived from the dead. She was scared to sleep.

"I think," Frisk started to say. "I think I should just go about my daily routine. Surely if I try not to think about it, I'll get over it." Sans opened his mouth to protest, but Frisk stopped him. "Trust me, Sans. I'll be okay. They're just nightmares."

But they weren't just nightmares. Whatever was going on inside Frisk's head was seeping into the real world as well. At times, she felt like she was being watched, even though no one was there. It happened mostly when she was in Sans's room alone, but it also happened when she was outside as well. In Hotland, while she was working the hotdog stand, she kept thinking someone was coming up to the stand to buy a hotdog.

But nobody came.

The night after that, Frisk's nightmare was the strongest and most vivid it had ever been, except in this one, she didn't die after the knife stab wound. Instead, she ripped the knife from her chest and lunged at the mysterious human, only this time, she felt herself consumed with bloodlust. She raged at the human, who was smiling, and stabbed him. Upon stabbing him, she woke up in a sweat. Sans was sleeping soundly next to her, she hadn't woken him up. A strange feeling of dread came over her. She looked down at her hand. She was holding a knife.

A piercing scream rang through the house that night. Papyrus could hear it through his wall and Undyne bolted for Sans and Frisk's room, spear in hand. Undyne bust the door open, asking if they were okay. Frisk was hysterically crying. Sans tried to comfort her, but she continued to shake and repeat: "he's real".

* * *

"You're sure," Sans said. "You didn't bring a knife to bed." Frisk stared at her skeleton lover with a bewildered expression.

"Why the hell would I bring a knife to bed?" She replied. "Besides, you were holding me all night. I think you would notice if I had brought a knife to bed." Frisk was right. There had been no sign she was bringing any type of weapon to bed. Was someone playing a prank on her? If they were, this was a pretty sick joke. "Don't even suggest that Sans. You know neither Paps nor Undyne would do something like this."

"Maybe you were sleepwalking?" It made the most sense. Although, how Frisk had slipped past all three of the monsters inhabiting the house undetected was unknown to her. "None of us woke up though. It's really strange."

"I think I need to go for a walk," Frisk said, grabbing her sweater and housekeys. "I need to clear my head."

"I'll come with you."

"No, Sans. I'm okay. I promise. It's all in my head. I think I just need to clear myself. I'll be fine." Frisk set out on her own, but Sans refused to let her walk outside by herself. After she had gone some distance away from the house, Sans lifted his hoodie over his head and began to follow her.

Frisk wandered mindlessly into Snowdin forest. This was all my head, she thought to herself. None of it is real. I'm just having bad nightmares and sleepwalking. That's all. It'll pass. The wind started to pick up. It began to snow. At first, it snowed lightly; a blizzard then picked up very quickly. Frisk couldn't see anything. The snowflakes obscured her vision, and she only was able to stay on the path by feeling around with her feet through the snow. The cold was stinging her face. Where was she? She didn't know anymore. She attempted to call for help, but for some reason, no sound was coming out of her throat. She was scared and terrified. She should have had Sans come with her. The wind hit her eyes, forcing them shut. Any attempt to open her eyes was met with instant tears seeping from her eyes, attempting to moisturize her scleras. After a little bit, she was finally able to open her eyes.

The boy from her nightmare was standing right in front of her.

She recognized those soulless, blood-thirsty eyes. He was still holding the same knife. Frisk was absolutely mortified. If this panned out like her nightmares did, he would come after her and lunge at her chest. She couldn't move, no matter how hard she tried to. The human took a step closer to her. Frisk shut her eyes, hoping this was only a hallucination and that he would go away once she opened her eyes. The sounds of footsteps crunching through the snow were echoing through the roaring of the winds. The human was an inch away from her face. His hot breath was on her face, indicating to her that this wasn't a nightmare. It was actually happening. The human cackled. Frisk thought she was going to die for real.

"Soon…" The human said. It was the only thing she heard him say. Her paralysis broke and she stumbled to her knees, in tears. The blizzard and the mysterious human were both gone. Sans rushed up to Frisk and cradled her as she cried.

"He's here." Frisk said to Sans. "It's not a nightmare anymore. He's here. He's real. And he's out to get me."


	20. Chapter 20

Sans and Alphys racked their brains, trying to figure out what the cause was behind Frisk's panic attacks and nightmares. She had never seen that human before, so Alphys hypothesized that it was a repressed memory. Sans was afraid that the stress of living in the Underground away from her life on the surface was taking a toll on her.

"She didn't kill him, you know," Sans said. "And that's why she's still here. She doesn't want to kill Asgore. She'd rather give up her life on the surface than take another soul."

"She's an amazing person," Alphys agreed. "That's why we have to do everything we can to try and help her out. We owe her this much." Sans knew that he owed Frisk more than just fixing her nightmare issue. He owed her his entire life for bringing meaning back into his boring, mundane life in the Underground. "I may have been gathering data too when I gave her that sleep wave inducer, just to try and see if anything is wrong neuronally." Alphys pulled up a map of Frisk's brainwaves. It had started recording as soon as Frisk hit the first cycle of sleep and continued to record until she was awake. Sans stared at the brain waves on the screen. They were similar to time waves, he noticed. He didn't know much about the REM cycle but was familiar with how timelines can shift. Frisk's brain waves looked similar to times when resets would happen. "I'm seeing a lot of neurotransmitter imbalance here."

"This looks just my screen in my workshop, except with time waves. On my screen, every blip corresponds with a time reset. It's an indication that someone has gone back in time. I never have any memory of the actual time jump, I just can tell when it happens. I've only seen Frisk do it twice." Alphys's computer started beeping. "What? What's wrong? Did you find something?"

"Yeah, I did…" Alphys stared at the screen. Sweat starting pouring from her forehead. Sans felt a sense of dread. "It detected… someone else's determination in Frisk's head."

"Someone else's determination? How is that possible? How can you tell?"

"Each human's determination gives off its own, distinct wavelength. Here's Frisk's right there. It's red. But wherever there are blips… I'm seeing a brown wavelength. That's not Frisk's."

"There's someone else in Frisk's head. This is dangerous. I have to go get her; we have to figure out how to get them out. We need to keep her in case she becomes possessed or something. She could really hurt people. Alphys, where is she now?"

"Umm," Alphys clicked a few buttons and cycled through her Underground cameras. "She's in Hotland. Selling hotdogs." Sans set out to get Frisk.

* * *

Frisk was sitting at the Hotland hotdog stand, thinking about what had happened a few days ago. The nightmares were decreasing in intensity since her hallucination in Snowdin forest, but she was still anxious. What if she had another hallucination? What if it caused her to hurt someone? She didn't know what to do. The more she thought about it, the less she thought it was all in her head. Someone, or something, was messing with her mind.

She heard high-pitched laughter in the distance. It was the three bunnies. Oh my god, Frisk thought. Why now, of all days.

"Well, well, well," The bunny said. "Look who it is. It's Sans's latest toy." The other bunnies giggled together, as if they were singing a duet. "And a human too! He really does get around, doesn't he girls?" Frisk gritted her teeth and tried to avoid saying anything she would regret. She hadn't seen the bunnies in a few weeks, as Sans had kicked them out of Grillby's and were not allowed to return.

"How can I help you?" Frisk said, pretending like they were just customers.

"Hm? What's that? How can you help? Well, you did get us kicked out of our favorite place to hang out, so that's not helpful at all is it." The bunnies started laughing. "You can help us get a little revenge on you, though." The leader bunny grabbed Frisk by the neck and lifted her up out of the hotdog stand. She struggled to hold onto the bunny's hand to loosen her grip and allow herself to breathe. In her grip, Frisk flailed around, attempting to break free, but she wasn't strong enough. Lightheadedness filled her mind as she was losing oxygen. She felt like she was going to pass out.

The other two bunnies were howling as the leader bunny brought her claws up near Frisk's neck. Although these bunnies did not share the same bloodlust that the human in Frisk's nightmares did, she was terrified, nonetheless.

"Teach her a lesson!" One of the other bunnies screamed. "This is what happens when humans mess with monsters!"

"I'll be sure to tell Sans how nice it was to get rid of you!" The leader bunny brought down her claw towards Frisk's face. At this moment, Frisk's primal instinct kicked in. She felt as though she was losing control of her body. Out of nowhere, a knife manifested from her hand. The back of the knife stopped the bunny's hand.

Sans was running toward the hotdog stand at that moment. When he reached the hill, he saw the bunny holding Frisk by the neck and Frisk stopping the bunny with a knife. When he got closer, Frisk's usual blue and purple sweater was gone and replaced with a green and brown one. Her eyes were glowing red and her cheeks flushed a devil-red color. The human kicked the bunny in the stomach and blasted the other two bunnies behind her. _Fuck!_ Sans thought. _I was too late. He's possessing her!_

"Thank you," The human spoke. "I was waiting for an opportunity to take over, and you ladies have just opened the door for me. As your reward I'll only let you _suffer for slightly less than I was intending_." The human lunged at the bunnies, who were screaming in terror. Sans's powers activated and he teleported over to the front of the bunnies and raised a bone wall to block the knife attack.

"Get out of here!" Sans yelled at the bunnies. "Are you fucking deaf? Get the hell out of here!" The bunnies ran away, screaming in terror at the sight before them. Sans activated his gravity powers and held the human against the ground. They were unable to move. They started laughing.

"Oh Sans," The human said. "I should have known you would come to save the day. I'm not shocked. You must care about this precious vessel a whole lot."

"Who are you!" Sans yelled at the human.

"You know who I am. The demon that comes when someone calls his name. The prince of death. Harbinger of destruction. I… am Chara." A light flashed. Sans was blinded and couldn't see. As soon as the light let up, Frisk was lying on the ground, passed out.

"Frisk, oh my god, Frisk, are you okay? Say something! Please!" Frisk slowly opened her eyes. "Oh thank god…" Sans pulled Frisk into an embrace.

"What… what happened to me…?" Frisk said weakly. Sans explained how the entity inside of her, the one causing her nightmares and giving her hallucinations, had taken total control of her for a few moments. He told her that the entity's name was "Chara". "I knew I wasn't hallucinating… Sans… Chara is dangerous."

"He called you his vessel. I think he plans to take control of you. Frisk, we need to do something. I'll take you back to Alphys's lab and we'll figure it out, okay? I won't lose you to Chara. I won't let him win. I promise."

"He's coming for everyone, Sans. No one is safe." Sans looked at Frisk. He had never seen her like this before. She wasn't crying or shaking: she was only staring at him with dead eyes. Whatever entity had possessed Frisk was real and a threat to the entire Underground.

"We'll figure this out. I promise."


	21. Chapter 21

"Where's Frisk?" Sans said over the phone. "You haven't seen her either? I'm really worried." Sans had called Undyne asking if she had seen her anywhere. After what happened at the hotdog stand, Frisk had disappeared in the middle of the night without telling anyone where she had gone. Normally, Frisk and Sans would leave each other notes if they left the house before the other person woke up, but this morning, there was no note on the fridge door or anywhere else in the house. Sans was beginning to panic.

"It's ok," Undyne replied. "Just head to Alphys's lab. I'm sure we can find her on one of the cameras. She probably just went for a walk and forgot to leave a note. She's only human, after all." Sans breathed. Undyne was right, Frisk couldn't have gone too far; she couldn't get out of the Underground anyway. He grabbed his blue hoodie and set out for Hotland.

Yesterday's events terrified Sans. He had never seen Frisk's face look so empty. All the color had left her face. He teleported her home, but she barely said a word to him. He wasn't even sure if she fell asleep. There was no movement from her last night, and he had been holding her all night. No shaking or screaming, but no sign that she had fallen asleep either. She must not have slept at all.

Sans knocked on Alphys's door. He hadn't been back to the secret lab in a long time, not since Gaster had disappeared. He shuddered. All his failed attempts to bring Gaster back were flooding back into his memories. He had avoided coming back to this place for years, but the idea of saving Frisk was more important to him than anything. The only other time he had gone back to Alphys's lab also involved Frisk. She was more important to him than his pride and fears. The door opened and he entered the lab.

"S-Sans?" Alphys said, surprised. "What are you doing here? I-I didn't think you would come back so soon."

"We can't find Frisk." Sans said. "I was wondering if you could find her for me on your cameras."

"Are you sure she didn't just go for a walk?"

"She didn't leave me a note this morning. She always does. I'm worried about her. I just want to make sure she's okay."

"Sans, did something happen?" Sans explained what had happened yesterday after he ran out of the lab. Frisk had become possessed by the other determined being. The entity called itself "Chara" and was attempting to attack the three bunnies that wanted to hurt Frisk. Frisk's entire demeanor had changed, and it was like she was a completely different person. Her face had changed from the soft, warm eyes that Frisk had to red eyes filled with bloodlust. Her cheeks had become bright red and her clothes had changed as well. Sans was only able to stop her by tethering her soul to the ground. When she awoke, Frisk looked as if the determination had been sucked right out of her. She had looked at Sans with dead eyes and refused to speak or make much movement on their way back home.

"I'm afraid whatever is in her head is going to end up possessing her again. I just need to know where she is."

"Jesus, that's so terrifying… Let me get to my computer." Alphys hurried over to her screen. The live feed was not able to pick Frisk up, so she tried to check other places. Frisk was nowhere to be found. "That's odd, I usually am able to find her somewhere. The Underground is only so big." Sans began to panic. What if she was somewhere no one could get to her? What if Chara took over again? Sans wasn't there to help her. "She'd have to be in a place I can't see with my camera. That's really strange." Suddenly, it clicked in Sans's head.

"I know where she is." He turned around towards the exit and sprinted home as fast as he could.

* * *

Frisk breathed heavily. The sounds of her breath were the only thing tethering her to this world at that moment. Who was Chara and why did he want to take control of her? She had to stay away from people in case he came back. No one was safe around her.

The moment the bunnies had attacked her, she felt strange inside, like her own determination had been broken and absorbed by another entity. Chara must have been absorbing her determination. How did she become possessed in the first place? She didn't know. All she knew was that he was dangerous and that she could lose control at any time. She had no memory of the event aside from seeing Chara stab open her chest and pull her soul out. When she came to, the soul had returned to her chest once again.

The floors were cold, and she was wearing shorts instead of pants. The feeling of cold on her legs was helping her focus on staying in control. She shuddered; at any given moment, Chara might be back to take her over.

" _Why fight me_?" Chara began to speak in her mind. " _Your determination is strong, but it only helps me grow stronger. I would have grown stronger earlier had you decided to gain EXP, but that's alright. Here I am. The more you stay in the Underground, the stronger our connection becomes. Isn't that right, Frisk?_ "

"What do you want from me, Chara." Frisk stuttered back. She couldn't speak clearly because of how terrified she was.

" _Oh, that's an easy one. I only want your soul and control over your body_." She heard Chara laugh in her head. " _If I have your soul, I can absorb the other six and we can destroy the barrier. We can destroy the world that's caused me so much pain. It's my revenge_." Frisk didn't understand. " _Oh, right, you don't know anything about me. Well, that's easy to remedy. Let me show you._ " Frisk's mind filled with Chara's memories. At first, they all poured into her head at once, and she couldn't differentiate which was which. Suddenly, her mind became blank, and images of Chara's past formed in her brain like a movie.

Chara had fallen down in the same spot that Frisk did. He was scared and terrified but was relieved to be out of that village he considered his personal hell. Life on the surface was miserable for Chara. Flashes of memories of abuse and torment filled Frisk's mind. Chara was hurting. He climbed Mount Ebott in an attempt to escape his hellish life on the surface. Suddenly, a monster approached from the darkness. He was a small child, about Chara's age, and resembled a goat. He asked Chara if he was okay and took him back to his parents.

The next few memories were filled with joy and love. Chara had been adopted by the royal family and treated as one of their own. His adoptive brother, Asriel, watched over and protected him. The two of them were mischievous and did everything together. Asriel's love and comfort towards his brother seemed to ease away the pain of his past for the time being. Chara and Asriel's brotherly bond was the strongest power in all of the Underground.

Chara had overheard his father one day, talking to his mother. Asgore wished to break the barrier and set everyone free so that monsters could live on the surface again. He talked of this dream with hope in his eyes. He thought that there must have been a better life on the surface and that they could patch things up with the humans. Chara, however, knew the truth: that life on the surface was hell, and that humans were the most disgusting race on the planet. Chara loved the monsters so much that he believed keeping them sealed in the Underground was the best option for them. He couldn't let Asgore try and find a way to break the barrier because the humans would destroy them all.

In his mind, Chara began to hatch a plan to eradicate humanity and create a safe haven for the monsters to live above ground. Consumed by his desire to exact revenge on the ones who made his life miserable, he began brainstorming ideas to break the barrier, kill the humans, and release the monsters. He poured over monster history books and spent all day in the library. Asriel had thought Chara was delving deep into his studies to prepare himself for eventually ascending to the throne. He loved his brother dearly and always assumed that the two of them would rule the Underground together when it was time for them to rise to the throne. Asriel had offered to help Chara study, but each time, Chara kept insisting that he had to do this on his own.

Over time, it seemed like Chara grew distant from Asriel and only spent his time in the library. Chara had even began visiting Dr. Gaster in what would become Alphys's laboratory. Chara and Gaster had only worked together for a short time, but Chara allowed Gaster to experiment on his human body. This research, which was carried in secret, was the framework which would eventually lead to Alphys's discovery of determination. Eventually, Chara became well-versed in the knowledge of human and monster souls and bodies.

Concerned for his brother, Asriel tried to sit Chara down to express his worry about their growing distant. Little did Asriel know that the plan Chara had hatched was about to come to fruition. Chara apologized to Asriel for the time they had spent apart and offered to bake a pie with him. Excited to reconnect with his brother again, Asriel accepted. They had grabbed one of the recipes for Toriel's butterscotch pie, but they were out of butterscotch. Chara then offered to try and find some replacement ingredients.

Chara had known of the power a monster soul carries after absorbing a human soul, and creating that scenario was his intention. Chara attempted to substitute butterscotch for buttercups, knowing that buttercups were poisonous to humans. Soon after, Chara became terminally ill. Stricken with grief and guilt, Asriel tried everything to save his brother, but it became apparent that Chara was about to die. Chara's last request was to see the Golden Flowers from his village and he expired shortly after. Asriel, determined to carry out his brother's last request, absorbed Chara's soul just as Chara had predicted. They both had shared control over Asriel's body, and they carried Chara's corpse across the barrier to the surface.

On their way up, Chara finally confessed to Asriel about his life on the surface. He told him of all the awful things he experienced and the abuse and pain he had until he fell Underground. He confessed that he thought humans were disgusting and that monsters deserved to be on the surface. Chara then explained of his plan to wipe the humans out, absorb six human souls, and break the barrier to let the monsters live on the surface.

Upon reaching the village, however, the humans assumed that Asriel had killed Chara, and they started to draw their weapons to kill the monster. Chara had attempted to convince Asriel to use their newfound powers to destroy the humans, but Asriel refused and resisted Chara, not wanting to hurt anyone. The monster/human fusion was destroyed by the humans.

" _I can't really remember much after that_ ," Chara reminisced. " _But when I came to, I was inside your head already. I was too weak to make a presence, so I just observed as you went through the Underground. I figured that the universe was giving me another chance to free the monsters and kill the humans for good. I'm gonna need your help._ "

"No," Frisk said. "I refuse to help you. We're not hurting anyone. I won't let you get away with his."

" _The more you struggle, the stronger I become, Frisk. Don't worry though, you'll get used to the shared control. It took me a while to adapt too_."

Chara's voice disappeared from Frisk's mind and she was filled with a fear she had never known before.


	22. Chapter 22

Sans rushed back to the only place he was sure Alphys didn't have a camera hidden: his workshop. After fumbling with the key, he busted the door open to find Frisk sitting down with her knees huddled to her chest. He ran over to her, afraid she was having a panic attack or experiencing another possession.

"Oh my god," Sans said. "There you are, Frisk." He noticed that she was wearing shorts and draped his hoodie over her legs. "You look freezing. Are you okay? What's wrong? Is it Chara?" Hearing that name made Frisk shiver. She looked up at Sans and explained that Chara had begun speaking to her in her mind. She told Sans about what Chara had shown her in her mind. She told him of Chara's memories and his plan to eradicate humankind and free the monsters. Chara had planned to continue this plan and that he was planning to possess Frisk to retry after his failed attempt. Hysterically, she explained how it was dangerous for her to be around anyone with Chara growing stronger within her.

"I don't know what to do." Frisk said. "I'm not safe anywhere. No one is safe. I'm scared, Sans. Last time I was in danger, my soul resonated with Chara and he took over. I hurt people, Sans. I tried this whole time I was down here not to hurt anyone and now I'm doing it without even realizing it. I'm losing control and I'm terrified."

"Listen to me, that wasn't you. That was Chara. You had no control. Don't you dare blame yourself, Frisk. It's not your fault."

"What am I supposed to do? I'm a danger to everyone around me."

"Well here's what you don't do," Sans said. "Don't run away from me. I can protect you. I'm stronger than I look, Frisk. I may be a lazy skeleton but I'm not without my secret weapons. If anything happens, I'll protect you and anyone around you. It takes more than a human with a knife to kill me. Just don't leave me. Please. I panicked when I couldn't find you today. I want to make sure you're alright." Sans reached for Frisk's waist to pull her close to him. She flinched. "What? What's wrong?" Sans lifted Frisk's sweater at the area he touched. There was a huge gash that had formed right where he attacked Chara the day before. It was still bleeding and was surrounded by a sea of black and blue. "Oh my god… Frisk, I'm so sorry," Sans froze. He had no idea he hurt Frisk the day before and was appalled at himself. "I didn't mean to hurt you…"

"No, don't blame yourself, it's okay. It was necessary. You had to pull me back so Chara couldn't hurt people. It's alright Sans, I understand. I would rather you hurt me than let me hurt other people." Frisk tried to smile to reassure Sans that she didn't blame him for hurting her, but Sans was too busy beating himself up. He had just promised her that he wouldn't hurt her, but he had anyway.

"I'm sorry Frisk, I wasn't even thinking. I'm so stupid. I should have realized I was hurting you too." He closed his fist tightly. His eye began to glow.

"Stop it, Sans. It's not your fault. Chara did this to me, not you, okay?" Sans looked up at Frisk. Even though she was the one in pain, she had continued to help him feel better. He felt guilty.

"Wow look at me," Sans said. "You're the one with another person inside of you and I'm the one that needs comforting." He chuckled and kissed Frisk. "You're amazing and I love you." Even through all this, Sans thought. She's still willing to put her own wellbeing aside to make sure others don't get hurt. "There has to be a way we can get Chara out of you. We'll find a way, I promise. We can get Alphys to help us. But first, let's go upstairs. I hurt you… let me treat your wound."

* * *

"Hold still," Sans said. "This will only hurt for a second." Sans rubbed an alcohol and antibiotic mixture into Frisk's wound. She yelped in pain when Sans lightly grazed her with the soaked bandage. As much as he didn't want to hurt her more, he knew he had to treat the wound before it got infected. He let her grab onto his arm while the medication stung her side. Frisk was sitting in the bathroom with only her bra and shorts on so that Sans could treat her wound. She blushed profusely, embarrassed that her torso was so exposed. "What's that look for? You remember I've already seen you naked, right?" Frisk blushed even harder.

"Idiot," Frisk said, flinching from the pain of the bandage and the embarrassment she had in front of Sans. "Why'd you have to bring that up again."

"What? I'm not wrong." Sans smirked suggestively. She instinctively covered her chest, trying not to show how flustered she was. The sexy face he made at her melted her insides. She was so attracted to him.

"Perv."

"Only for you."

Frisk thought back to the night when she and Sans had nearly hooked up. It had moved so fast that she got scared and stopped him. After all, she had never been with anyone, and Sans was way more experienced than her. Anything she tried to do that night would probably not have met his expectations. Since then, he hadn't tried to do anything after that aside from sweet nighttime kisses and loving embraces.

"Can't believe you saw me naked," Frisk said, wrapping the bandage around her torso. "We weren't even together yet."

"What, want me to even the score?" Before Frisk could say anything, Sans disrobed. He tossed his blue hoodie aside and ripped his white shirt off. His shorts and pink slippers then followed. In a few seconds, a bare skeleton was standing right in front of Frisk.

"Sans!" Frisk yelled, embarrassed. She pried her eyes away from her skeleton lover. "P-Put your clothes back on!"

"What, you know what skeletons look like. Don't act so shocked. Or does my _bare-boned_ body excite you?" Sans chuckled. Of course, Frisk knew what skeletons had looked like, but seeing Sans naked scrambled her insides anyway. She _really_ wanted him. He inched closer to her, putting one hand on her back and the other on her waist, careful to avoid touching her wound. Sans's cold fingers against her exposed body cause her to lose her breath for a second. "I hope you know Frisk; your body has been on my mind since I saw it the first time." He brushed the back of her bra strap, sending shivers up her spine. "I don't know how much longer I can keep myself away from you." His fingers slowly started to undo her bra, but she stopped him.

"W-wait Sans," Frisk said. "Stop…" Sans pulled away, afraid of doing anything Frisk wasn't comfortable with.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have tried to do anything."

"N-No, Sans come back… I want to… I just am inexperienced and have never done this before and I'm scared you'll be disappointed."

"My love," Sans whispered in Frisk's ear, pulling her as close to him as possible. "Nothing about you could ever disappoint me. Besides," Sans's hot breath against her ear and neck caused Frisk to lose focus. The only sensations she had were seeing Sans embrace her in the reflection of the mirror, feeling his hot breath on her ear and neck, and hearing her heart pound out of her chest. "I would love to be your first." He started licking her ear, causing small whimpers to escape from her mouth. "Let me make it up to you Frisk… I caused this giant gash on your side… _Let me wound you in a different, more pleasurable way._ "

She couldn't handle it anymore. She understood why he was so popular with girls, every word he spoke called out to every fiber of her being. She wanted him and only him. It suddenly didn't matter how many other girls Sans had been with, because from that moment on, Sans's words and actions conveyed a clear message to her: _You are mine and only mine. I am yours and no one else's_.

"Okay." Frisk whispered back to Sans. Surrendering to him, he carried her back to his room and revealed the true extent of his feelings for her.


	23. Chapter 23

She swore the world was still tinted blue.

Memories of the night before wouldn't leave Frisk's thoughts. The room had only been lit with the blue glow from Sans's left eye the whole night. She hadn't planned on sleeping with him that night, but everything that unfolded happened perfectly for her. It filled her with butterflies just thinking about it. Even when she was at work in Grillby's, she kept replaying the night over and over. In the corner of the bar, Sans was at this usual spot. They kept glancing at each other back and forth and smiling to each other, thinking about what had happened the night before.

"I'm gonna vomit," Grillby teased Sans. "Seriously, you guys see each other all the time, why you gotta stalk her at work too?"

"Listen," Sans replied. "I've _always_ been coming here at this time. It just so happens that now, my girlfriend works here." Grillby chuckled.

"Oh, I see. I know that face."

"What face?"

"That's the 'I just had sex' face!" Grillby howled. That asshole, Sans thought. How could he possibly know that? "I've known you too long. You have the same face right after you spend a night with a girl. Only, it's different this time."

"Oh yeah?" Sans gulped down his ketchup. "Enlighten me, oh fire-fuck."

"Fire-fuck! That's a new one. Gotta keep that in the 'list of names Sans calls me when he's embarrassed'. Nah. This face is different. You didn't just have sex. You _made love_." Grillby howled even louder. Sans wanted to disappear into his blue hoodie. On previous occasions, he would have bragged to Grillby about how he had gotten some the night before. This time, he wanted to keep that private moment special between him and Frisk.

"Fuck off."

"Oh? Won't give me details? That's strange. How about I ask the lady herself! Hey, Frisk!" Grillby called after Frisk. Sans hopped out of his hood and immediately cursed Grillby, who was still howling with laughter. Frisk came up to the bar after serving a few customers.

"Yeah, what's up Grillby?" Frisk said. Sans started at his girlfriend. He always thought she looked cute in her uniform, but today, it seemed like her cuteness had grown exponentially.

"I got a question for ya!" Sans wanted to shut Grillby up, but knew he was made of fire and couldn't cover his mouth. "Did you and Sans… Get a chance to celebrate your one-month anniversary yet?"

"Oh! That's right. Our one month is coming up." Frisk put her arms around Sans. "We haven't made plans yet, Grillby, have any suggestions?" Goddammit Grillby, Sans thought. He really did love teasing the skeleton.

"Actually Frisk," Sans said. "I did make plans for us. I was going to surprise you." He handed Frisk a ticket. "I rented out MTT resort for us. Mettaton, Napstablook, and Shyren are going to hold a private concert for us."

"Oh my gosh," Frisk squealed with glee. "Sans, you didn't have to do this for me. Thank you so much. I'm so excited!" She kissed Sans and squeezed him. Sans hugged her back, inhaling her scent. She always smelled so good.

"I'll tell you more details later, okay my love?" Sans kissed Frisk on the cheek. "Go back to work before I get you in trouble with the boss."

"I could never punish dear Frisk," Grillby said. "If there's anyone here to punish, it's Sans!" He started cackling. Frisk smiled at Sans and returned to work.

"Thanks, ass, I was gonna tell her about our surprise trip eventually." Sans grabbed another bottle of ketchup.

"I just love watching you squirm. Besides! I figured she needed to take some days off. Let me know what days and I'll take her off the schedule." Sans grumbled and wrote down a few dates on a piece of paper. Grillby glanced to his side. A bird monster sitting at the end of the table, one he had never seen before, was sipping a gin and juice out of a martini glass. She was eyeing Sans up and down. He knew that she would have come over to try and flirt with Sans had he not called Frisk over. The bird, clearly in no position to approach Sans, left her drink on the table and exited the bar. No one was going to try and take Sans from Frisk on Grillby's watch.

* * *

Frisk stood outside of Alphys's laboratory. Sans had said that Alphys was willing to help her figure out what was going on with Chara inside her head. She clutched her phone, knowing that Sans was only a speed dial away if she needed him. Frisk entered the lab. There was a note on the floor from Alphys. In the note, Alphys explained that she would have to take Frisk to her True Lab, but first, she had to tell her the secret she had been hiding all these years.

Upon entering the True Lab, which had a completely different atmosphere than the lab aboveground, Frisk saw the truth. She learned of Alphys's determination experiments and the Amalgamates. Despite this horrific revelation, Frisk assured Alphys that she believed she could atone for what she had done.

"I always feel like…" Alphys stuttered. "My sins are crawling on my back…" Frisk felt Alphys's pain. She must have been holding this in for years. After a moment, Alphys picked herself back up and brushed off her fears and insecurities. "This isn't why you're here though. I'm here to help get Chara out of you. I just… figured you should know the truth before you stepped foot into the space where I do most of my experiments."

Frisk nodded. They sat in the main chamber of the True Lab. Frisk told Alphys about everything that had happened to her: her nightmares, hallucinations, and possessions. She had heard Chara speak in her mind and even project memories into her brain. For the time being, he had not come back to speak to her since last night. Alphys meticulously took down notes on all of Frisk's experiences and asked in more detail.

After about half an hour of questions, Alphys cleared off the whiteboard near her computer and began to brainstorm. Frisk tried to keep up with what Alphys was writing, but she was writing too fast and in illegible shorthand that Frisk had no idea what was going on. Despite this, Frisk trusted that Alphys was doing her best to figure out what was wrong with her. After about an hour, Sans entered the laboratory.

"Hey," Sans said, hanging up his blue hoodie and donning a spare white coat from Alphys's lab coat hanger. "What's the progress on your research?"

"I haven't seen you wear a lab coat in years, Sans," Alphys laughed. "Welcome back." She was right: it had been years since he last wore that lab coat, right before he gave up trying to piece Gaster back together. Driven by his desire to purge Chara from Frisk's mind, it reminded him of the passion he had trying to research how to get Gaster back. He had worn the lab coat again out of habit.

"You look cute in a lab coat, Sans." Frisk said. Sans walked over to her and kissed her.

"Anyway," Alphys said, slowing down the speed at which she was marking her whiteboard. "Remember what we found last time?" Alphys and Sans spoke of how they detected another presence in Frisk's brainwaves: a second source of determination. Alphys was sure that Chara was able to possess Frisk by absorbing some of her determination. Sans and Alphys continued to share their observations and eventually came to a conclusion.

"I was thinking the same thing, Alphys." Sans said.

"What?" Frisk said, intrigued. She wished she had the scientific knowledge to understand their thoughts. Sans and Alphys looked at each other. Alphys described how her determination experiments required the use of the "Determination Extractor", the giant machine in the back of the room. Her and Sans hypothesized that if they were to re-engineer the Determination extractor, they could use it to pull Chara out of Frisk's soul.

"T-There's only one problem…" Alphys said. "It's extremely dangerous… We might end up pulling your determination out of your soul instead."

"And there's another problem," Sans said. "This machine was built by Gaster. We know how to work it, but we don't know how to re-engineer it. It's gonna take us a while." He turned to Frisk. "Listen Frisk… This all sounds really risky. I don't know if…" Sans trailed off. The thought of losing Frisk terrified him more than anything. Frisk knew, however, that this was a risk she had to take, or else all of the Underground would be in danger. She would rather perish than unleash that evil into the world.

"Sans," She said, looking up at him. "You know I can't say no. If this is the only lead we have on stripping Chara out of my soul, then we have to chase it. Besides, I would rather no one get hurt than-"

"Stop it. Don't continue that sentence. I'm not doing anything that would put you in danger. I'm not going to try this unless Alphys and I are 100% sure that you won't be harmed." Frisk took a breath. Sans had seen right through her. Of course, he wasn't going to let her sacrifice herself for the sake of everyone else. "Promise me you won't do anything crazy."

"Okay Sans. I promise."

Sans pulled Frisk into a huge hug, unwilling to let her go.


	24. Chapter 24

Frisk was beginning to hear Chara again.

This time, the voice was nothing more than passing thoughts or one or two phrases. It had been a couple of days since she last heard Chara in her head, but it seemed like he was slowly returning to the front of her consciousness.

 _Dearest Frisk,_ Chara said. _Why don't you surrender?_

Frisk tried to ignore Chara and continued to work. She was working a double at Grillby's and was on her 9th hour. She focused on waiting tables and getting orders done. It was like nothing mattered in that moment aside from the customers. Grillby noticed her pouring herself into her work.

"Frisk," Grillby called her over to him. "You know, it's not really that busy today. You can go home early if you want." Frisk refused. She knew that if she went home early, it would give her alone time and a better chance for Chara to talk to her. Determined, Frisk told Grillby he was staying.

Grillby glanced at the other side of the restaurant. There was that bird again, the monster he had never seen before. He swore her colors were even brighter than they were the last time he saw her. They were blinding him. She looked as if she were up to something.

"Yoohoo," The bird called out to Frisk. "Yes you, human girl. Come over here." Frisk went over to the bird while carrying a stack of dishes.

"How can I help you?" Frisk said cheerily to the bird. The bird raised an eyebrow.

"My order is wrong."

"Oh, I apologize. I'll fix it right away. What was your original order?"

"I had ordered an eggplant burger. Not a regular burger. You'd think someone in this town would get something right." Frisk was taken aback by her rudeness. She went to hand the order to Grillby, but the bird called her back. "Come back here, human, I want to talk to you." Knees shaking, Frisk returned to the brightly-colored bird. "I hear you're making quite a name for yourself in Snowdin."

"You- you know me?"

"How could I not? The only human in the Underground. You're a walking zoo exhibit." Frisk winced. No one had called her a zoo exhibit before. "What's it like to be loneliest being in the whole Underground?"

"I- I don't understand."

"You must be lonely, are you not? You're from the surface, your family and friends are up there, you come down here unable to get home."

"I'm not lonely. I have my friends here." The bird scoffed.

"Friends? You think these people are your friends? Everyone knows Asgore only needs one more human before he can break the barrier. To everyone, you're just an object they can use to get to the surface. None of your friendships down here really matter." Frisk tried to hold in her anger.

"I don't know who you are, but I think I know how my friends really feel about me. Excuse me."

"Suit yourself, zoo girl." The bird brushed her feathers, revealing a shinier gloss of feathers underneath. "Oh, and you know that skeleton in the blue hoodie?" Frisk stopped in her tracks. "He seems like a cool guy. Kind of cute. Won't you introduce me to him?" Frisk was speechless for a moment.

"If you want to talk to him so badly, go talk to him yourself." She walked away. The bird had an evil grin on her face, as if Frisk had just given her permission to carry out her evil plans. Grillby watched this whole interaction go down.

" _You know_ ," Chara returned to Frisk's head. " _I feel your frustration and pain. Your anger. You want her out of here, don't you? You want her to stay away from Sans? He is yours after all and no one else's."_

"Get out of my head, Chara."

" _Just give me control of you just for a second. I'll make sure she never comes back._ "

"Stop it, Chara. I'm not hurting anyone."

" _It won't be you, darling. It'll be me. Besides. Nothing matters in this world because I'm going to destroy everything anyway. So why not let me take revenge for you?_ "

Frisk felt control slipping from her body. She shut her eyes tight, then opened them. Everything had gone dark aside from her soul resonating in her chest and Chara standing in front of her. She ran. Chara came charging after her. Farther and farther, she kept running into darkness. She tripped.

She jolted awake, flexing her fingers to ensure she was still in control of herself. She was lying in the back room of Grillby's on a cot. How long had she passed out for? She exited the back room. No one was in Grillby's.

"Grillz," Frisk said, rubbing her head. "What happened…?"

"You collapsed." Grillby said. "I took you to the back. Are you okay?" Frisk was still breathing heavily. She almost lost control again. Chara was fully taking advantage of her emotional weaknesses and that scared her. This time, she was able to fight him off. What would happen next time?

"I'm fine." She changed her demeanor as to not worry Grillby. "Please… Don't tell Sans about this." Grillby had assumed that Frisk collapsed from something the bird had done.

"What did that bird say to you?"

"Nothing. It was just some stupid stuff about how we got her order wrong. She was just being a bitch for no reason." Frisk grabbed her coat. "I'm going to head home now. I stayed here way past my shift." Frisk gave Grillby a smile and walked back to the house.

* * *

"What?!" Sans screamed over the phone. "Is she okay? Is she hurt?"

"She's fine, Sans." Grillby said. Grillby figured she was just fatigued from working a double shift that day and had let her rest in the back room for as long as she needed. "Look, she told me not to tell you about it, but I felt bad keeping this from you. I just thought you should know." Grillby hung up. He was working at the Waterfall sentry station but left early to go home and make sure Frisk was ok.

Sans got home and quickly ran upstairs, not even saying hi to Undyne or Papyrus. They looked at each other, puzzled. Sans swung open the bedroom door to see Frisk lying in bed with headphones on, staring at the ceiling. He called out to her, asking if she was okay?

"What do you mean?" Frisk said, sitting up. "Of course, I'm okay." Frisk was lying, and Sans could tell.

"You're lying. What's wrong? What happened?" Frisk winced. Goddammit Grillby, she thought. She sighed and figured Grillby wouldn't keep anything like this from his best friend. She couldn't hold it against him.

"Ok," Frisk said. "Something happened at Grillby's." She tried to tell Sans that Chara tried to possess her in the middle of her shift. She had passed out for a few hours and woke up in Grillby's back room, unable to remember what happened. This time, she had been able to fight Chara off by running away in the hallucination she was having.

"This is so strange," Sans said. "This is only what, the third time Chara tried to possess you? What's the trigger?" He was racking his brain. Frisk, however, knew exactly what triggered this episode.

The bird had been putting her down during their interaction earlier that day. She was fine until the bird suggested she was attracted to Sans. Frisk hid in the sheets. She never pegged herself the jealous type but felt immense envy after the way that bird talked to her that day. She had fit the exact type of girls Sans had slept with. Her heart stung. "Huh? Frisk? Why are you hiding?" He pulled the sheet off her face and kissed her. She was so embarrassed by her jealousy that she didn't want to tell Sans about it at all.

"N-No reason," Frisk said. "It's just warm under here."

"If you wanted warmth Frisk, you only had to say so." Sans draped his blue hoodie over her body. It felt so nice, wearing his clothes. She immediately felt better. "It's getting more and more dangerous for you to be alone. I think I'm going to have to be with you 24/7."

"Excuse me?" Frisk was taken aback. "I don't need a baby sitter. What the hell?"

"It's getting too dangerous. I can't leave you alone. You need to be with someone all the time. Chara could take control of you at any time, it's too risky to be alone."

"Since when were you making decisions like that for me?"

"Frisk, listen, this is dangerous. I know what I'm doing. And since you're living in my house, I'm going to have to enforce this on you."

"'Enforce'? Who the hell are you, my mom?"

"I know what I'm doing, Frisk. I'm just trying to keep you safe."

"Don't you think I know what I'm doing?"

"Clearly, you don't, since you've been having issues with Chara taking you over! Honestly, Frisk, stop being such a kid about this!"

"I'm not a kid. I'm nineteen years old. How dare you treat me like one? What's your problem?"

"My problem is I don't want to keep you out of my sight because this is becoming an issue!"

"Since when did you become an asshole?"

"Since you became a ticking time-bomb!" Sans covered his mouth. He didn't intend for it to come out like that, but the damage was already done. Frisk looked _pissed_. She got out of bed, got dressed, and started grabbing her stuff. "Where the hell are you going?"

"Away from you," Frisk said. "Apparently, I'm too dangerous for you now."

"Get back here, it's not safe!"

"The only thing that isn't safe right now is my freedom when I'm around you." Frisk angrily stomped out of the door. Sans wanted to beat himself up. He didn't mean for it to come out like that, he was just worried about Frisk.

Frisk stomped away from the skelebro's house. The crunch of the snow under her feet was extremely audible and she huffed away, angry that Sans would treat her like a child.

" _He's wrong you know,"_ Chara suddenly appeared in Frisk's head. " _You're never alone. I'm always here too._ "

"Oh, fuck off, Chara."


	25. Chapter 25

Frisk stared at the white ceiling in Alphys's lab. She was not a stranger to the spare bed in Alphys's laboratory, as she had slept there before. She and Sans have never fought like that before, and she was very shaken. Why was Sans being so overprotective? She wasn't a weak child. She felt insulted that Sans would treat her like a fragile doll.

" _I know how you feel,_ " Chara said. " _Everyone thinks you are weak just because you are a human. They underestimate our capabilities. If you had decided to, you could easily destroy everyone in the Underground. You just don't want to._ "

"This is hard enough as it is, Chara," Frisk said. "Don't make it worse."

" _I'm only speaking the truth, aren't I? My whole life I've known hardship and suffering. I had to steel myself. Make myself strong. Revenge on humanity is my only purpose._ "

"Revenge isn't the only answer, Chara. You know that, right?" Chara chuckled.

" _You sound just like my brother._ _I really did love my brother dearly. Losing him in that awful battle was the hardest thing I ever had to experience._ "

"You think the destruction of humanity is what Asriel wants?"

" _No. But it's what_ I _want. I'm doing this for both of us._ " Frisk started to feel sorry for Chara. He had gone through so much pain and suffering, she could sympathize with why he was so angry at the world for causing him all this hardship. " _I'm sorry, Frisk_. _But I have to do this. And I need you to do it._ "

The rest of the day, Alphys started doing tests on Frisk to figure out how to pull Chara out of her without hurting her. After hours and hours of brain tests, being hooked up to monitors, and looking at graphs and equations Frisk didn't understand, Alphys finally came up with some sort of solution.

"I think I've got it." Alphys said. "It's not going to pull Chara out, but I can at least neutralize him and get him out of your head for a few hours. Theoretically. If you want me to try it, I will. I ran this test on the simulator using the brain wave data I've gathered from you. It should work." Frisk thought about it for a little, and figured if it would neutralize Chara, it should be fine. She agreed to it and was hooked up to another monitor. "I'm going to deliver a small shock to your brain. It shouldn't hurt, only feel tingly for a few seconds."

Alphys activated her machine. Frisk expected there to be a jolt of pain or a headache, but Alphys was right; she only experienced a small tingle in her head that went away.

"How are you feeling?" Alphys inquired.

"I'm okay," Frisk said. "I don't feel any different." She tried to call out to Chara in her head. Nothing. Until that moment, she always had this lingering feeling that someone was watching her. This feeling was gone. "I don't feel Chara anywhere."

"G-Great!" Alphys said. "I don't know how long it'll last, Frisk, so as soon as he comes back, come back to the lab and I'll give you another shock. I'm going to make us some celebratory noodles! I'll be right back!" Alphys went up to the ground floor of her lab.

Frisk breathed a sigh of relief. She had been stressed over Chara's presence whenever she felt a strong emotion and was ready to seal herself off from everyone to protect them. She let her muscles relax for the first time in weeks.

"Frisk!" Alphys called from upstairs. "Someone is here for you."

Here for me? Frisk thought. Who could that be? Her question was answered when she saw a glimpse of a blue hoodie. Sans was standing outside of the laboratory doors, holding a bouquet of golden flowers.

"Frisk," Sans said. "I want to apologize for yesterday. I am a stupid idiot. I shouldn't be so overprotective of you. I'm sorry that my actions made you feel like you were being treated poorly. I accept everything wrong I said, and I just hope you can forgive me." Frisk immediately pulled Sans into a huge hug. "I just don't want to lose you, Frisk. I've never been scared of anything before and now I am. I'm scared of losing you."

"I'm not going anywhere silly," Frisk said. "And I forgive you. I know you care about me. I don't want us to fight anymore." He kissed her, and she kissed him back, accepting the apology kiss. "I missed sleeping with you last night."

"You don't have to miss sleeping with me anymore. I moved up our anniversary celebration." He linked his arms with hers. "I'm taking you to MTT resort, if you'll have me."

"Always, Sans."

* * *

Sans stood outside MTT resort, as he always did before. This time, however, he was wearing a black tuxedo with a blue flower while waiting for Frisk to arrive. He felt nervous, which was surprising to him, as he had already been dating Frisk for a month and was used to taking her out on dates. They had never gone on a fancy date like this before. What if she had a bad time?

Sans saw Frisk cutting through the distance. Her hair was pinned up in an elegant bun, and she was wearing a beautiful, pink strapless gown that seemed to hover with every step. His jaw dropped. She looked so beautiful and Sans was speechless seeing Frisk all dressed up.

"What?" Frisk said. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"You're so beautiful." Was all Sans managed to get out. Frisk giggled.

"You look pretty good yourself. Shall we?" She linked her arm with his and they entered the resort. The restaurant had been blocked off, just as Sans had planned. The receptionist, who knew Sans, greeted the both of them and asked them to step inside the restaurant. The restaurant was deserted, and all the tables were set up nicely. In the center of the restaurant, a table with a red tablecloth and a centerpiece decorated with three candles and a golden flower lay at the middle of the table. Sans led Frisk to the table set up for them and pulled the seat out for her. She sat down, and he took the seat across from her.

"Hello…" Napstablook appeared before them suddenly, in a top hat and bowtie. "May I… Take…. Your order…?" Sans and Frisk skimmed through the menu a moment and decided on their food. Sans had ordered steak spaghetti and Frisk had ordered filet mignon. They looked at each other for a moment and laughed, realizing they had swapped the orders they had at Grillby's on their first real date. "Okay… Steak…. And spaghetti… Oh… I just realized… I can't write… I can't take down your orders… Why did I offer to be the waiter… Oh no… I made it awkward… Oh no….." Napstablook disappeared, and Sans and Frisk chuckled.

The lights dimmed, and Mettaton, Shyren, and Napstablook appeared on stage.

"This one goes out to two of my closest friends," Mettaton said. "Sans, Frisk, happy one-month anniversary. You've both brought us so much joy and we couldn't have asked for better friends. Even though we are still trapped Underground, it's not too bad since we have each other. This song goes out to the both of you." Mettaton played a rendition of " _Oh, My Love!_ " from back when he was trying to kill her, although this time, the lyrics were pleasantly different.

" _Oh, my love_

 _Don't run away_

 _My heart cries out_

 _For you to stay_

 _Human, trust_

 _We won't be apart_

 _Even if_

 _The nightmares start_

 _I'll be here_

 _Here by your side_

 _I won't leave_

 _And you can stay with me_

 _Don't be sad_

 _I'll protect you_

 _Oh, my love_

 _Please never run from me."_

Frisk felt tears well up in her eyes. She really wasn't alone in her struggle.

"I, uh," Sans said. "Helped Mettaton rewrite the lyrics. I hope you liked it." Frisk got up from her chair and went to hug Sans, crying tears of joy. "Hey, don't cry. You're gonna ruin your makeup, silly."

"I love you, Sans. I love you so much." Frisk gripped Sans tighter.

"I love you too, Frisk."

They received their food and started eating and talking for a while, cracking jokes and enjoying each other's company. In the background, Mettaton, Shyren, and Napstablook performed their "serenade" set for the couple to set the mood for their date. Sans and Frisk were having the time of their lives, spending it with each other. Suddenly, the mood seemed to change. Frisk became very quiet, and Sans had noticed.

"What's wrong, Frisk? Are you okay?" Frisk continued to stay silent. "Hey, come on, my love. We're having a good time. Don't worry about anything except right now."

"I can't, Sans." Frisk said. "Every day I am walking around, there is a chance Chara might break free and hurt a lot of people. I have to… take steps to ensure no one gets hurt."

"Stop. Don't say anything more. You promised me, none of this."

"Sans, I have to. Please listen. Let me at least talk. I need to get something off my chest." Sans didn't want to listen to more. He knew exactly what she was going to say. And he wanted to prevent her from getting to say it out loud. "Please." However, he knew he couldn't stop her. She wasn't his to control, and that was the mistake he had tried to make last time.

"Okay. I'm all ears."

"You have to promise me something Sans."

"What, my love…?"

"If anything happens to me, and I'm a threat to the whole Underground and the world…" Frisks eyes looked down as her voice trailed off. She began to shake. Sans knew exactly what she was going to say.

"Frisk, stop. You promised me you wouldn't do anything crazy."

"I did promise. I promised _I_ won't do anything crazy. But if I really am a threat then-"

"Frisk, please…"

"You have to promise me you will kill me."

Sans's heart became heavy. How could he promise something like that? The woman he loved, the one who brought joy back into his life was asking him to kill her. At this point, he would have gladly sacrificed the whole entire world to save her. But he knew she wouldn't let that happen. He sat in awe of her selflessness and the amount of care she had for the whole Underground. The only other promise he had every really made was to Toriel, and that was a promise not to harm Frisk. Now, Frisk was asking him to go back on the promise that got him to meet her in the first place. He was torn, but he knew he had only one choice. He had to honor her wishes of putting the whole world before herself, when he only wanted to put her before the whole world.

"I promise."


	26. Chapter 26

Sans and Frisk spent the rest of the night together in the room they had rented at MTT Resort. Sans wrestled with the promise he made to Frisk all night. He did not even want to entertain the possibility of killing the person he loved the most, but knew that if the opportunity came, he would have to do it. Sans made love to her the entire night, as he didn't know if he would have to fulfil that promise soon. He wanted to keep her close for as long as he could. He couldn't help but feel a huge sense of dread in the back of his mind that he would end up having to keep that promise.

The next morning, the sun draped into the hotel room through the curtain they had left open the night before. The sun danced off Frisk's bare back and she was fast asleep. There were no signs that she had had any nightmares. It seemed like this was the most she had slept in a really long time. Her brown hair was tinted gold as the sun hit it just right to make each strand of her hair shine. Sans loved her so much and it was painful to think about the promise he had just made. He wanted to protect her and having to fulfil that promise would break the one thing he had been trying to do this entire time.

"I love you." He whispered, kissing the nape of her neck. She stretched her body and readjusted herself but did not wake up. He could stare at her beauty all day. The only thing Sans wanted to do at that moment was hold her close to him and never let her go.

It pained Frisk to have to entrust that promise to Sans, but she knew he was the only one that could stop Chara in case anything went wrong. Frisk was even ready to have to end things herself if Sans did not make the promise for her, but she knew that Chara would prevent her from harming herself. After Alphys treated her brain waves, she began to think clearly about how to stop Chara from taking the Underground and the surface over. She didn't want anyone to get hurt.

It was nice to be able to take a few days off and spend it with the one she loved. Frisk had gone back to her job working the hotdog stand in Hotland. It had gotten busier during the afternoon, which was strange, but she had fun speaking to everyone anyway. As soon as the crowd died down, she took a break and sat down at the stand, organizing her inventory and taking a breather.

The feeling of being watched was back.

" _Fuck that lizard,_ " Chara's voice returned to Frisk's mind. " _Those brain waves you send me. They're_ excruciatingly _painful. I didn't know you loved to inflict pain like me, Frisk._ " Frisk was horrified. She felt the resonating feelings Chara had been having. The treatments had been hurting Chara. As much as she wanted Chara out of her, she was not about to resort to hurting another human being.

"I… I didn't know they would hurt you." Frisk responded.

" _You're one interesting human. You're actually worried about me? The one who's been trying to take your body over and destroy all humanity?"_ Frisk couldn't help it. She hated hurting people, even if the person had been hurting her. She was too much of a pacifist. " _I'll never be able to understand you. We're very different, you and I._ "

"I mean. We can't be that different, right? We're both humans. Two of the eight humans that have fallen Underground. We both have determination. We both are passionate about our goals. It's not much different."

" _Passionate about our goals? Why? What's your goal?_ " Frisk paused. Really, her one goal was to keep everyone in the Underground safe. She wanted to do that without hurting anyone. " _What a stupid goal. But I admit you are passionate. I will give you that much._ "

"Is it really a stupid goal to want to save everyone?"

" _No one gets to have a happy ending. This world is horrific and deserves to be destroyed. I lost my chance at a happy ending a long time ago._ "

"It's never too late for a happy ending, Chara." Chara paused. Frisk paused too. Did Chara really deserve a happy ending? No, probably not. Was she going to try and find a way to give him one?

Absolutely.

" _You're naïve. There's no possible way you could find me a happy ending._ "

"You must not know me too well, despite being in my head for a while. I'm _very determined_."

" _So am I, Frisk._ So am I."

* * *

"Absolutely not." Sans shut Frisk down. "Are you crazy? You finally get some peace of mind with Chara not being in your head and you're trying to refuse the brain wave stimulation?"

"Like Alphys said, we don't know if it's doing any unnecessary damage to my brain. I'd rather not wait to figure it out." But that wasn't the real reason Frisk stopped. She didn't want to hurt Chara, and she wanted to try and convince him not to hurt anyone. If it was possible, she was going to try and find a way to save him, too, but there was no way she was going to tell Sans that. He would not have liked it.

"S-She's right Sans," Alphys said. "I literally have no idea what the side effects of this stimulator would be. I didn't even really want to try the stimulator the first time, but Frisk insisted so we tried it. It works, for the time being. I think we should just focus on rewiring the determination extractor." Sans grunted angrily. He didn't want to have to see Frisk have nightmares every night. It was the worst to see her like that. Frisk put her hand on his arm.

"It'll be fine, Sans," Frisk said. "We'll find a way to make it work. I'll try and find a way to suppress Chara without the brain stimulator somehow." Sans had a strange feeling that Frisk was hiding something but decided not to pry more. It was hard enough for her to admit to him that she wanted him to kill her if anything went wrong.

"Ok," Sans surrendered. "Whatever you think is best, Frisk." He kissed her on the forehead. "Let's get started then. Let's run more tests. Are you ready Alphys?" Alphys nodded, and hooked Frisk up to her monitoring cables. Sans ran toward the determination extractor and began to work on rewiring it. He put his entire being into trying to figure out how the machine worked, so that he would not have to keep his promise to Frisk.

Surprisingly, Frisk didn't feel Chara's presence much that day, despite tests being run. Maybe Chara was starting to have second thoughts about taking Frisk's body over. Frisk wanted to ask them if there was a way to remove Chara without hurting him in the process but figured that would get a lot of pushback from Sans. After a few hours, Sans stepped outside the laboratory to take a break from reengineering the DT extractor. Frisk took this opportunity to speak with Alphys.

"Alphys," Frisk said. "Can I talk to you?"

"Y-yeah, of course Frisk!" Alphys responded. "What's u-up?"

"You have to promise me you won't tell Sans any of what I am about to tell you. Please Alphys. Promise me." Alphys hesitated at first, but figured it had to be serious if Frisk didn't want to tell Sans about it. She promised. "I… have something I might want you guys to do. But I know Sans wouldn't like it. That's why I wanted to ask you." She confessed to Alphys that the brain stimulation was hurting Chara, and that Frisk didn't want to hurt another human being. From some of the conversations Frisk had with Chara, she felt as though she might be able to save him, too. "So this is my request… I want you to find a way to remove Chara from me _without hurting him_. Maybe once he's away from me and isolated we can talk to him or something and figure out exactly why he wants to hurt so many people. He's been so miserable and unhappy, Alphys. It's not fair that he doesn't get to have a happy ending too." Alphys was surprised at Frisk's confession.

"Uh… Give me a second to think, okay?" Alphys knew Frisk was right: there was no way Sans would agree to a plan like this. Sans's priority was to save Frisk from Chara's evil plans, not caring what happened to Chara himself. Frisk wanted to save Chara. She was being selfless even in this time of distress. She really was an amazing person. "It would take a lot of extra work, I hope you know that. A-And we would have to do a lot of tests on our own, without Sans here. If he found out what we were doing, he would absolutely freak out!"

"Whatever it takes, Alphys. I'll just tell him we're hanging out a lot, that'll be easy to get past him."

"You do realize there's a risk of him trying to destroy everyone once he comes out, too."

"Then we need to take steps and make sure that doesn't happen. You can create bodies, right? Like Mettaton's? If you make one you can control, we can isolate him and make sure he doesn't hurt anyone."

"Okay. I'll… I'll do it. I'll help you save Chara."

Frisk and Alphys had created a secret agreement to try and extract Chara to be able to save him. The feeling of saving another human soul filled Frisk with determination.


	27. Chapter 27

Grillby took a vacation that week. He hadn't taken a vacation since Grillby's had opened, since he was the only bartender. Frisk had offered to run the bar for him during the week he was gone, intending to take the entire week, but Sans didn't want her to exhaust herself. Sans, in turn, took three days of the week while she took four. It was going to be difficult for them not to see each other much for a week, but they figured they owed Grillby this much for everything he had done for them.

Frisk used this opportunity. She planned to visit Alphys at the laboratory to begin their side testing while Sans was busy bartending. It seemed that Grillby's vacation had come at a good time. Frisk had taken the first day of the week, so she headed to the laboratory while Sans was working the next day.

Sans picked up on running the bar pretty quickly since he had been at Grillby's so many times. He was surprised he even remembered the orders of the other regulars that frequented the bar. He was actually starting to enjoy running the bar. Maybe this would give Grillby the chance to take more vacations, Sans thought. The man definitely deserves it.

He had been coming to Grillby's for years, shortly after it opened. He knew every customer like the back of his hand, and knew when new faces came in. That day, he noticed a bird he had never seen before sit at the bar. He thought nothing much of her, other than that he had never seen her at Grillby's before. She had such brightly-colored feathers that he felt like he had to squint his eyes just looking at her. He went up to her to take her order.

"Welcome to Grillby's." Sans said. "What'll it be?"

"Hmm," The bird said. "I think I'll have some ketchup. I know, it's probably a weird order."

"Hey, a fellow ketchup lover. I love the stuff too." Sans grabbed a bottle of ketchup for the bird and a bottle of ketchup for himself. "Cheers." The bird and Sans toasted and began to drink the ketchup bottles. "I don't normally meet many other ketchup lovers. We're two of a kind."  
"Oh really? I've always drank ketchup out of the bottle my whole life. Just second nature to me. It's got such a sweet taste. I'm _addicted_." Sans laughed.

"I don't know if I'd call myself a ketchup addict, but the stuff is definitely delicious. Say, you got a name?"

"Juniper. It's very nice to meet you. How about you? What do they call a skeleton like yourself?"

"My name is Sans. Sans the skeleton."

"Sans. What a _sans-sational_ name." Sans cackled.

"Wow. A pun-lover too? They must really love you back home."

"Well, you know. I'm one-of-a-kind." Juniper stayed at the bar, speaking to Sans whenever he wasn't serving customers. Before long, Sans realized it was closing time, and she had stayed at the bar the whole time.

"Your time's up, Juniper. It's time to close."

"Aww, but I had such a great time here. It's such a friendly bar. I've never been here before so it's really nice to get to hang out at a place with some great people."

"There are some great people here. I agree. Hey, you should come back tomorrow. The bartender here tomorrow is great too. She's one of the most amazing people I've ever met. She loves meeting new people. I think you and her would be great friends."

"Hm. I'm actually busy tomorrow," She sounded unenthusiastic. "Maybe the day after."

"I actually work the day after, but you can catch her on days I'm not working. You should definitely meet her. You'd get along so well." Juniper chuckled.

"Oh, I'm sure we would."

* * *

As the week continued, Sans and Frisk went through their days alternating shifts. On Frisk's days off, she would spend time with Alphys in her laboratory trying to figure out how to rip Chara out of her soul without hurting him. Alphys, who was experienced with creating bodies, tried to create a vessel to hold Chara's essence that she could easily control. Without Sans's help, Alphys had to work twice as hard to find the answer while also creating an alternate set of data to give to Sans that didn't contain data about keeping Chara intact. During this time, Chara had been eerily quiet. No possessions, no thoughts intruding Frisk's head, no nothing; it was like Alphys zapped her with the brain stimulator, even though she had not.

Sans had been going to the laboratory on his days off as well, although his objective was to re-engineer the DT extractor. While Sans was there, Alphys couldn't work on her research as openly as she wanted as she didn't want Sans to see what she was doing. Instead, she spent her time creating the altered reports for Sans to pour over while she was working on the real reports when Sans would leave the laboratory.

Alphys was working overtime on two different sets of the same data; she ended up staying late almost every night that week. Luckily, there was a lot of overlap between the two sets of data. She ended up creating a prototype chip for the DT extractor using the data Sans on the DT extractor had the data she collected on her own, personal research. Alphys had spent a lot of time on the phone with Asgore, asking him about his two sons to get the full picture of the story and to find more about Chara. If Alphys could save Chara, she could restore the King's happiness and maybe even try to get Toriel to come out of the ruins and return back to the throne. Alphys even got Asgore to show her Asriel and Chara's old room, which had been untouched for decades. Alphys had gotten a hold of DNA samples from strands of hair laying around Chara's side of the bed. She also picked up DNA samples of Asriel. She wasn't sure if she needed Asriel's DNA but decided to take it anyway in case she needed it in the future.

With the DNA from Chara and the data she collected from scanning Frisk's brain and isolating his determination, she was able to use that to create the prototype "Chara extractor" modification to the DT extractor. Alphys breathed. She knew that if Sans were to get his hands on this chip, he could easily use it to complete his own data and create a chip that would exterminate Chara from Frisk's mind. She knew that she had to find a way to hide this from Sans.

Alphys called Frisk and told her that she had created a prototype, but that she would not activate the modification unless Frisk told Sans what the two of them had been doing. Alphys hated going behind Sans's back all this time when the two of them were supposed to be working together. Frisk initially hesitated but realized she should tell Sans before anything happens. She felt bad keeping this secret from him all this time but knew he would have stopped their research had he known about it. She figured it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission. They planned on breaking the news to Sans the day Grillby came back from vacation.

Sans and Frisk mostly communicated by notes during this time, as they had barely seen each other. After Sans met Juniper, he left a note for Frisk on the fridge that said, "There's a new regular at Grillby's. You should meet her, I think you'd be great friends. Her name is Juniper. I told her to come find you during the days you work." Since then, Frisk was waiting every day she was working at the bar for this mysterious Juniper monster to introduce herself.

But nobody came.

Juniper, on the other hand, seemed to only make herself present on days that Sans was working. Every time Sans would ask Juniper whether she had met Frisk yet, Juniper would respond saying she was always busy whenever Frisk was working. Sans enjoyed Juniper's company and didn't mind that she was there all the time. He tried to emulate Frisk and made sure the new monster wasn't lonely coming to a new town. As soon as the week ended, Sans planned to introduce them to each other, and expected that they would become friends and get along.

On the last day of the week that Sans was working, he told Juniper to come to Grillby's in two days so that he could introduce Juniper to Frisk. Juniper said she would be there, and that she looked forward to meeting Frisk. Sans was overjoyed, as he was excited to get to introduce a new friend to Frisk, since she loved making new friends in the Underground. Juniper hugged him goodbye that night, which surprised Sans. He wasn't much of a hugger.

"What?" Juniper said. "We've pretty much spent all week together. I think we're at the hugging level, are we not?" She smirked at him. The flirty gesture went completely over Sans's head. He had not really realized that Juniper had been flirting with him all week, as his mind was focused on re-engineering the DT extractor. To him, that gesture was just her being friendly. He was used to all his close friends hugging him anyway.

"Alright, alright. Listen. I'll see you in two days, okay? You're gonna love Frisk."

"Oh, I know. You talk about her non-stop every time we're together. You must really love her, don't you?"

"Yeah. I really do."

Juniper exited Grillby's while Sans stayed behind to clean the bar and lock up for the night. Frisk was coming from the opposite direction, on her way home from Alphys's lab. The prototype had nearly been completed, and it was almost time to test it out. She just needed to somehow get Sans's full support, which she was not sure she was going to get.

Frisk recognized the silhouette coming toward her in the snow. It was that bird from a few weeks ago, the one who called her an exhibit. They locked eyes.

"How's the cage, freak?" Juniper walked away without another word.

" _I really fucking hate people like that_." Frisk heard Chara's voice for the first time that whole week.

"Me too, Chara. Me too."

To her surprise, Chara had not tried to possess Frisk during this moment of emotion.

Maybe he was changing.


	28. Chapter 28

"Chara?" Frisk called out to him. She wanted to talk to him and ask about what his plan was if Alphys was able to extract him and tether him to a new vessel. She had been trying all day to call him, but he wasn't answering.

It was a slow day of work at Grillby's. The next day, Grillby would come back from his vacation and Frisk would have to tell Sans what she and Alphys had been doing all week. She wasn't ready to face him, as she knew he'd be really upset that Alphys and Frisk had gone behind his back. Frisk had never tried to call Chara before. It felt strange to call upon the entity who possessed her, but she had to talk to him to figure out how to help him.

" _It's weird to hear you call me._ " Chara finally surfaced when the lunch rush was over.

"It's weird for you to wait until I'm not busy to talk to me." Frisk responded.

" _That must mean it's a weird day. What's up, Frisk?"_ This whole interaction was very strange. It was like she was talking to an old friend and not a psychotic entity.

"I'm sure you've been keeping up with what's going on. It sounds like Alphys may have found a way to remove you from me and put you in a vessel. We might be able to free you."

" _And then what? If you free me, I'll just carry out my plans in that new body Alphys made for me, right?"_

"W-Well," Frisk stuttered. Chara sounded so calm and collected about his plan to wipe out humanity. Frisk wasn't even sure why she was trying to help him in the first place, but she knew that she hated seeing anyone upset. "We took precautions to make sure you couldn't do anything like that."

" _Oh, I know. I was just wondering what you would say. You do know I need a_ human _vessel to carry out my plan, right? What makes you think I'm going along with all of this?_ "

"You haven't tried to stop me yet. I haven't heard much from you this past week. You haven't even tried to possess me. What… are you thinking?"

" _Hm, what_ am _I thinking? That's a good question. I exhausted a lot of my determination trying to possess you these past few weeks. It's taken a lot out of me. You could say I'm just taking a break._ " Frisk breathed. Chara still hadn't completely given up on his plan to possess her, but she could tell he was exhausted and couldn't do much. Perhaps this could be her only chance to strip him from her soul. She had to act fast.

"If this works, Chara, I promise we'll try and do something to help you." Chara then chuckled. "What's so funny?"

" _Frisk my dear, I am beyond help._ "

* * *

Grillby had returned from his week-long vacation in Hotland, relieving Sans and Frisk of their duties. He thanked both of them and resumed his station as the bartender. Sans and Frisk then took a walk together. It was the first time they had really seen each other in the past week.

"You know," Sans said to Frisk. "Running the bar is kind of fun. We should do it more often. We'd be able to give Grillby a break." Frisk laughed.

"Is this real? Am I really hearing Sans the skeleton _wants_ to take on more work? What timeline is this?"

"The timeline where I met and fell in love with an amazing human." He kissed her passionately, which took her off guard, but she didn't resist. "Frisk… Before we go to the lab… Do you wanna have alone time?" Frisk blushed. She hadn't seen Sans in a while. She didn't realize how much she really missed him until that moment. They had both been so focused on their research in Alphys's lab that they didn't have much time to think.

"Yes. Please. I need you Sans. It's been too long…" She slipped her arms inside his hoodie and hugged his ribs. "Let's have a little bit of alone time before we continue…" Sans continued to kiss her passionately until they realized they were still outside by the river.

"Let's go back to our room."

"After you." Sans teleported both of them to his room. Upon their arrival, they wasted no time removing each other's clothes and surrendered to each other.

Sans had this hanging feeling of dread the whole day. He had a bad feeling that something horrible was about to happen. He wasn't sure if he was imagining things, but he didn't want to let Frisk go for fear that he was going to lose her soon. Frisk had felt guilty about hiding her secret from Sans this whole time, but she figured he would get upset with her and then they would be okay again. They had fought and made up before, so she was confident that they would be able to do it again. Despite this, she also had this lingering feeling that something horrible was about to happen.

Eventually, they both realized they couldn't stay in their room forever and that they had to get back to Alphys's laboratory and get to work. Frisk was shaking. She needed Alphys to be with her when she told Sans; she definitely wouldn't be able to do it alone. The boat ride over to Hotland felt like it took a million years. Sans noticed that Frisk was shaking and assumed she was afraid to continue testing.

"Frisk?" Sans said, holding her hand. "Are you alright? Don't be nervous, Frisk. I've almost figured out the DT extractor. You don't have to worry."

"I-I'm fine," She responded, trying to hide her guilt. "I just need to get to the laboratory." Frisk felt like her stomach was going to regurgitate. She had never been more nervous in her entire life.

"It's okay. Don't worry. I'll buy you dinner at Grillby's after this. You still have to meet Juniper. We can have fun with a new friend." Frisk breathed. She did like meeting new people, but would Sans want to take her to Grillby's after finding out what she had done?

The two of them walked up to Alphys's lab together, hand-in-hand. Frisk squeezed Sans's hand as they stood outside the laboratory doors, waiting for Alphys to open them.

"Sans?" Frisk said. "Promise me something."

"Frisk, please. It was already difficult for me to make that last promise, don't-"

"Promise me, no matter what happens, you will always love me."

"What? I already do, silly. You know that."

"Promise. Please." Frisk had never shaken more than in her entire life.

"I promise. I will always love you. No matter what happens." This time, Sans gripped her hand tight.

They entered the lab. Alphys and Frisk gave each other a look, knowing that it was almost time for them to come clean. The three of them stepped into the elevator. The air was tense. Each one of Frisk's muscles tightened. Alphys was sweating. Sans felt the mood of the room. Why were they so nervous? The three of them arrived in the true lab and gathered around the DR extractor.

"Alright." Sans said, rolling up his sleeves. "Time to get back to work."

"Wait, Sans," Frisk said. She looked at Alphys, who nodded solemnly. It was time to come clean. "I need to say something. Alphys and I have something to tell you."

"Hm?" Sans said, pulling himself out from behind the machine. "What's up?"

Frisk told the story from the beginning. How she had been speaking with Chara in his mind, feeling his sadness and loneliness, and about her desire to help him get his happy ending, too. Alphys and Frisk proceeded to tell Sans about the experiments they had been doing to generate a way to rip Chara out of Frisk's mind and tether his soul to a body that Alphys could easily control. They would figure out what to do after that. Alphys had been re-engineering the DT extractor on her own and had finally created a prototype chip that would theoretically rip Chara out of Frisk's soul while keeping his essence intact.

"I wasn't going to run the prototype without telling you," Frisk said. "Alphys thinks the prototype might need a little more work, but with your help, I'm sure you guys can perfect the code soon. I… I'm sorry we didn't tell you. I thought you would get mad and stop us, so we kind of kept it a secret from you. I'm sorry it took this long to tell you."

All of a sudden, Sans felt nothing. Frisk and Alphys had been going behind his back, working on research he wasn't a part of. He was confused. Why would Frisk hide something like that from him? They were supposed to tell each other everything. This was supposed to be a joint effort. Instead, Frisk had roped Alphys into a project that was intending to save the entity threatening her life. How could she do this to him?

"You've… been speaking to Chara?" Was the first thought out of his mouth. "What do you mean? Speaking how? How long has this been going on?" He felt an immense wave of jealousy overcome him. Had she been speaking to Chara this whole time like they were buddies or old friends?

"I kind of just call him out from my mind. He hasn't tried to possess me in a while."

"That doesn't fucking matter. Frisk, I can't believe you would do this to me. You went behind my back and created this awful chip. And you." He turned to Alphys. "You completed the research I was working on. I was supposed to be working on this. You finished it and didn't even share your findings with me? Do you know how much I've been struggling to create a DT extractor modification?"

"Don't yell at Alphys. This was my idea. I told her to help me."

"And why in the flying fuck would you even try to save Chara? He's been making your life miserable! He needs to be gone! I just… I can't believe you would do this to me, Frisk. I thought we were in this together. Turns out, we aren't."

"Don't be like that Sans, I knew you wouldn't agree and that's why I had Alphys create the prototype first. I just wanted a chance to explain myself, to show you why I'm doing this."

"I don't need an explanation. You clearly care more about Chara than about me. I'm leaving. Complete your research on your own. You guys obviously don't need me." Sans threw his lab coat to the ground with a resounding thud and donned his blue hoodie and tried to walk out the door.

"Stop, Sans. You know that's not what this is about. I still care about you more than anything."

"That's obviously a lie. If you cared about me, you would have known how I felt about all this. You went and did it anyway, and for the sake of another guy that doesn't even really exist." Sans's eye began to glow blue with burning jealousy. He couldn't believe Frisk did this to him. He felt himself losing control of his powers. He had to get out of there before he hurt anyone.

"Sans, please, come back!" But he had teleported away. Frisk was in a panic. She knew he would be upset, but she didn't expect him to react so strongly. She ran out of the laboratory and headed for the boat dock. She knew exactly where he was going.

* * *

Sans downed an entire bottle of ketchup. His left eye was so bright, he was afraid that it might never calm down. As soon as his powers calmed down, he intended to talk to Frisk about everything that happened. The more he thought about it, however, the more upset he got. He tried to slow his breathing to attempt to calm down. He felt _so_ jealous. He thought Frisk only showed that much care and concern for him. Seeing her try every attempt to bring him back without hurting him stung at his soul. He never felt this way before. Dejectedly, he cracked open his second bottle of ketchup.

"Hey, don't hog it all, Sans!" A familiar voice rang out from behind him. Sans turned around. It was Juniper, who had come to Grillby's at Sans's request from two days ago. He had completely forgotten about it.

"Oh," Sans said. "Hey, Juniper. I'm sorry. Things are just tough right now. I need a moment alone."

"You don't need to say anything. I'll just sit here next to you. I don't want you to be lonely." Juniper flashed him the brightest smile she could give. Her feathers shone against the lights of the bar. Sans swore they were even shinier than usual. He appreciated her company; he just needed time to think about what would happen next. He was worried about what would happen if they _did_ end up completing Alphys's prototype, and the danger that would pose on Frisk. He sat for a while, contemplating.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Juniper took his head in both of her hands and forced a kiss on him. Muffling, he forcefully pushed her off of him, nearly knocking her backwards.

"What the fuck, Juniper?" He yelled at her. She was smirking. "What the fuck is that look for?" He turned his head to the left. In the doorway was Frisk, face already streaming with tears. "Frisk, no. This isn't what it looks like! Come back!" He ran after her. Juniper dusted herself off, paid for her ketchup, and exited the bar as if her goal was complete.

Frisk ran as far as she could. She knew it was a mistake to tell Sans. As soon as she had, he went back to Grillby's to immediately plant one on a hot girl. It hadn't just been any hot girl, it was the bird who was mocking her very existence. She had had nightmares of her soul cracking into pieces, but what she felt at that moment was much, much worse. She meant nothing to him. She was just a phase in his life. She never should have had Alphys make that chip. She should have been honest with him. None of that mattered anymore. Nothing mattered to her anymore. The only thing that mattered now was ripping Chara out of her soul before he could surface and try to take control of her. She busted through the doors of the true laboratory.

"Alphys." Frisk said. "Do it."

"W-What?! B-But this is a prototype, I don't even know what it'll do to you, it's dangerous!"

" _I don't care._ " The voice that came out of Frisk's mouth now was a mix of Chara's and Frisk's. He was beginning to surface. Frisk needed to try and remove him before it was too late. " _Run the extractor!_ " Frisk screamed at Alphys. Terrified, Alphys complied, hooking her up to the machine, and inserting the modification chip to the DT extractor. She pressed the button.

The machine whirred. It hadn't been turned on in years, but it made loud noises and started spewing smoke. All Alphys could see was Frisk's silhouette in the grey smoke that filled the room. A piercing scream rang through the dark. Although Frisk was the only other person in the room, she heard what sounded like two different voices screaming.

Sans ran out of Grillby's. He was so close to attacking Juniper, but figured it was more important to chase after Frisk. His head was spinning. He couldn't think straight. How was he supposed to explain what just happened to her? In reality, he really had just been sitting down minding his own business when Juniper forced herself onto him. To Frisk, he knew it looked like he was just some womanizing skeleton. She was never going to believe him. He was so scared. He was about to lose her. He ran back to their house, but she wasn't there. He frantically asked Papyrus and Undyne if they had seen Frisk, but neither of them had seen her all day. He panicked. Immediately, he ran towards the edge of Waterfall and teleported to the lab.

There was smoke emitting from the double doors to the laboratory. It was open, which struck Sans as strange. Something happened. He ran downstairs. The entire true lab was full of smoke. It was hot and thick. If Sans had lungs, he surely would be suffocating right now. Frisk's silhouette was all he could see in the smoke. He ran towards the silhouette and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Frisk!" Sans called out through the thick fog. "Are you alright?"

"I'm wonderful." But the voice wasn't Frisk's. It was a boy's voice. The smoke began to clear. The figure he thought was Frisk turned around. Instead of his girlfriend's cheerful face, a demon with devil-red eyes and rosy cheeks was staring back at him.

"No…"

"Sans," Chara's eyes pierced his very soul. " _You're too late._ "


	29. Chapter 29

Sans was blasted backward into the wall of the laboratory. His vision was hazy, as he had hit the back of his head into the wall. All he could see was Chara standing over him, menacingly.

"Boy! It feels great to be alive again. I forgot what it felt like to breathe." Chara stretched out his arms, filling out Frisk's blue and purple sweater. "You know, I couldn't have done it without you, Sans. Frisk's final outburst of emotion was all she needed to let me take full control of her." Sans didn't understand. He tried to speak, but the blow to his head was too strong. He was starting to fade out. "Oh, that's right. Frisk never told you. Her possession trigger… it was _jealousy_. Luckily for me, I had the perfect pool of jealousy to work with. Isn't Juniper such a wonderful girl?" Chara laughed maniacally. "Good night, Sans." Everything turned to black.

Sans didn't dream much after the Gaster incident, but as he fainted, he found himself in one of the most vivid dreams he had ever had. In this dream, he saw Frisk wandering out of the ruins, like she had when she first met him. This time, however, Sans had not approached her with the intent to prank. He approached her with the intent to kill. He must not have made the promise in this dream. Was this another timeline he was seeing? Was it just all in his head? He didn't know. All he knew is that the promise he made to Frisk had to be fulfilled soon.

He jolted awake. The carnage of the laboratory was before him. The dust had cleared, leaving the destroyed DT extractor. Alphys was nowhere to be found.

How long had it been since Chara broke free? He couldn't tell. It could have been 5 minutes or 5 days; he had no idea. Sans got up to his feet. He didn't have any time to waste. Chara was out there in the Underground wreaking havoc, and he was the only one that could stop him. He dusted himself off and ran out of the laboratory, frantically trying to figure out where Chara had gone. He picked up his phone and tried to call Papyrus and Undyne, but nobody picked up. He kept trying again and again as he ran back from Hotland.

All he could see lining the roads toward Snowdin were piles of white dust. Chara had been out for blood. Sans ran as fast as he could towards home. As he reached Snowdin, the dust piles were blending into the white snow. At some point, he couldn't tell which was which. He panicked. Papyrus and Undyne had to be okay, right?

He reached Snowdin. It was eerily quiet. No one was in town. The shops were empty. Even Grillby's was deserted. No sign of Grillby or any of the regulars. He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to see someone, anyone; he just needed a sign that someone was alive.

A sense of immense fear hit Sans as he reached his house. As soon as he linked up with Undyne and Papyrus, they could figure out how to reverse this awful situation, maybe even try and figure out where Mettaton and Alphys had gone. He called out their names.

But nobody came.

Sans's bones started shaking. He crashed to the floor, tears in his eyes, realizing what had happened. No one was there, so there was only one logical explanation. Everyone was gone. He looked up from the floor and saw two piles of white dust, next to a spear and Papyrus's red scarf.

He was too late.

Sans screamed. For years, he had cared for nothing else except his own brother. Depressed by the lack of control over his life, he drifted along for the past few years, only being interested in things for a short while, and then leaving whenever it got boring. Once Frisk had entered his life, he felt as if he cared about his own life again. It seemed like he finally could control his own destiny, and that Frisk was the one he was existing on this Earth for. Now that his friends, family, and the love of his life were stripped away from him. He felt himself going back into that apathetic state of mind he had been familiar with for so many years.

 _No,_ he thought _. I can't do this anymore. This isn't just about me. This is about Frisk. I can't let Chara control her. I have to do it._ He draped Papyrus's red scarf over his hoodie and set out.

* * *

Sans waited in the Judgement Hall. The last time he was there, Frisk had told him she would stay in the Underground with him for a long time. Now, he had to commit the one act he had been dreading all this time. He wasn't ready; perhaps he would never be fully ready to do what he was about to do. He leaned against the golden pillar, hands in his pockets. His hood was fully over his head. There was a pain in his heart he couldn't explain. He wanted to vomit.

Footsteps were heard from the distance. At first, they were soft, but then they became louder and louder. Sans started to get dizzy. The footsteps filled his ears, a sense of death and destruction loomed over him as Chara's shadow came into view.

Chara was still wearing Frisk's sweater, but one look at his face and he knew that Chara had completely taken control of Frisk. His hands were covered in white dust. The gleam of a knife obstructed Sans's eyes for a split second. A dark and mysterious aura surrounded Chara. Sans knew he was in for the battle of his life.

"Oh Sans," Chara said. "I figured I would save you for last. Frisk tried so hard to pull me away from you earlier when you collapsed. I was ready to take you out immediately, but she still had some hold on me. No matter. Her influence is gone now. I have enough EXP and LOVE to take control of this timeline."

"So," Sans responded, emerging from the pillar. "You know about timelines too." He was taken aback. Were the resets he had seen on his timewave monitor all Chara's resets?

"Let's just say I heard it from a little flower. Now, Sans, I don't know if Frisk ever told you, but my intention was always to break free and kill all the humans and release the monsters to the surface. But then I realized… _Killing everyone was much more fun_."

"You're horrid."

"Me? Horrid? Sans, I thought you understood what it felt like to be bored with everything around you. What it feels like to use other people for your own entertainment. Dear Frisk was bored too, and that's what got her into this mess in the first place, isn't it?" Sans thought back to the time he and Frisk had one of their first conversations. She indeed had been bored with her life on the surface, and thus she climbed mount Ebbott. He thought of all the women he had used and tossed aside just to save himself from boredom. Now, he had met the one woman that made him want to change, and she had to be taken away from him. "That's right… Her last memory is of you kissing another girl. She's trapped inside her own head, reliving her last conscious moment over, and over. Isn't that wonderful? Doesn't that spice up the narrative?"

"You're not fucking leaving here alive." Sans's eye started to glow, and he was ready to fight off Chara with all his might. He had to save the rest of the world, for Frisk's sake. He had to make sure he honored her last wishes.

Chara lunged at him with the knife. Sans dodged and moved out of the way, reading Chara's movements almost as instantly as he made them. He summoned the Gaster Blasters that he had salvaged from Gaster's belongings after he had disappeared and threw everything he had at Chara. Both of them kept dodging each other's attacks. Whenever Sans had hit Chara, he would heal himself using food and treats Frisk had kept with her. It was going to be a long battle.

Hours passed. The two of them were still attacking each other. Sans began to sweat, and Chara was nearing his limit as well. Despite this, both of them were equally motivated by their desires and kept pushing forward. Sans was about to lunge toward Chara, but something made him stop dead in his tracks.

"Sans…" Frisk's voice cut through the empty void of the Judgement Hall. Sans immediately paused.

"Frisk… Oh my God… Frisk, you're in there… Can you hear me?" He put down his bones and blasters and ran towards his girlfriend. "Frisk, I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I got too carried away with my anger. None of this would have happened had I not lost my temper."

"No… This is my fault. I should have listened to you." Frisk spoke through tears. Sans could barely understand her, but he could hear her anyway. He didn't want to stop hearing her voice. He wanted to hug her and hold her close one last time. "I'm just a boring human being. I should have never thought that I was enough for you."

"Frisk, listen to me… That wasn't what it looked like. I swear. I wasn't cheating on you. She did that herself. I know you won't believe me, but please. Let me tell you what really happened. I love you. I always have and I always will."

"Sans… you know what you have to do."

"I know." He held her tightly. There was no knowing when Chara would take control of Frisk again. He had to do it quickly before it escalated again. He didn't have a choice.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Sans shot out three bones through Frisk's heart. Her bloodcurdling scream pierced the Hall and echoed throughout the entire stretch of the hallway. It was the worst sound he had ever heard in his life. It seemed like the scream lasted for a million years. When she finally stopped, he pulled her lifeless body off of him and watched her slough to the ground. Frisk's soul rose from the ground and appeared in front of him, shaking. After a few seconds, it split in half.

Frisk was gone.


	30. Chapter 30

He fell to the floor, screaming. Frisk's body lay lifeless in his arms. He was appalled by what he had just done. Frisk, the love of his life, the only person he cared about more than himself, was gone. Bright blue tears streamed from his eyes. He wanted the world to end. He wanted a reset. Anything that would fix what he had just done. Or maybe, he wished he had never met Frisk at all. This was all too much for him. Nothing mattered anymore. He lost his friends, his family, and the love of his life. He wanted everything to end.

Suddenly, Frisk's body began to sparkle. She was physically fading out of existence. Sans screamed again; he didn't want to lose her body too. He was going to give her a burial like she deserved. Every second that passed, however, her body started to fade away. Soon, there would be no trace that Frisk had ever existed in the Underground. He screamed again and cried into his hands.

He wanted to vomit. Frisk was the only person who had breathed life into his sad, empty life. All his memories of her replayed at once. The good memories and the bad memories flashed in his head almost instantaneously. He didn't care about anything anymore. He just wanted her back. He wanted the pain to stop.

Footsteps again.

Sans was taken aback. Why would there be footsteps? Did a monster survive? Was there someone else in the world besides him?

"S-Sans…?" The voice spoke. It was all too familiar to him. At first, he wanted to lunge at her and kill her for making all of this happen, but at that moment, he was just thankful someone else was still alive.

"Juniper?" He ran toward her. "Juniper, is that you?"

"Oh, Sans!" She ran and hugged him. "Thank goodness, I thought no one was alive… I've been all alone in Snowdin, I didn't know if anyone was still here. Everywhere is empty, I haven't been able to find anyone." Juniper was sobbing into Sans's blue hoodie. He tried to comfort her, but the pain of losing Frisk generated a huge wave of apathy. She broke the embrace. "Sans? What's wro-"

He jumped back. Through the center of Juniper's chest, a knife was protruding from it. Juniper began to choke and wail. Immediately, she disappeared and turned to dust.

Chara was right behind her.

"Oh, wow, does that feel good!" Chara said. "I don't know how she slipped from me, that bitch. But in the end, I've got her. Are you happy now, Frisk?" Sans was absolutely horrified. He thought he had killed Frisk, but there Chara was, standing before him, still possessing her body.

"What… how…?"

"Oh Sans, don't you remember? I am the most determined being in this world right now. All I had to do was reset. Frisk and I's determination combined is more powerful than anything you will ever see." Sans froze again. He had just gone through the traumatic experience of killing Frisk once: now, he had to do it again? Could he even destroy Chara for real? "Anyway, I'm glad we finally got that bitch. This whole thing is her fault, isn't it? If it wasn't for her, Frisk would never have run out and tried to use the DT extractor early. In a way, I have to thank that stupid bitch. But I hate people like her, and so does Frisk."

"Frisk would never hate anyone. She never even knew Juniper. Stop lying to me."

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong. Juniper has been harassing Frisk, didn't you know that? She would go on and on about how she was going to introduce herself to you and talked about how cute you were all while belittling Frisk. Frisk was so embarrassed at how jealous she found herself that she kept it all inside. Of course, the more she kept it in, the stronger her feelings of jealousy grew, and the stronger I became. That last event at Grillby's was the last push she needed for me to finally take over. And thanks to that incomplete DT extractor, I was able to take hold of her in all the chaos."

Sans couldn't take it anymore. Chara's words made him lunge toward him, but his heart was still in agony. He had to kill Frisk again. It was bad enough the first time around, now, he had to commit this horrible act again. This time, he tried quickly so that Chara didn't have much time to attack him back. He remembered Chara's patterns again from their previous battle, but it seemed like he was learning Sans's attacks quickly, too. Eventually, he was able to finally kill Chara again.

As soon as he died, however, another human would come waltzing through the Judgement Hall, and he would have to fight Chara again. Over and over, Sans had to endure the pain of killing the woman he loved. At the very end, when Sans would deal the final blow, Chara would let Frisk have control of her body again just to see Sans suffer. It was too much for him. The more the battles repeated, the more tired he got. He wanted it all to end, but he couldn't just give up.

Eventually, Sans and Chara went into a stalemate. Sans used the last of his power to freeze Chara where he stood. There was only one last thing he could try and do to prevent Chara from reaching the surface: preventing him from having another turn. It took all of his magic, but he froze Chara right where he stood. Sans breathed heavily. How long had it been since the battle started? He didn't know. It felt like hours had gone by.

"My, my," Chara spoke, his voice equally out of breath. "This is the most I've seen you try in your entire life, Sans." Sans could barely breathe. The exhaustion from the battle combined with the amount of magic it took to execute his final attack wore him down. He could barely speak as well.

"If… I can keep you here… You'll never be able to hurt anyone again. So, I'm just going to keep you here, and we can stand here for all eternity. Whatever it takes to save the rest of the world."

"Save the world? Sans, you don't really mean that. You've never cared about anything. You don't really want to save the world. You and I both know that this world… really doesn't exist." Chara was right. Sans really didn't care much for anything, but he would be damned if he ever broke his promise to Frisk and let Chara loose. "You want to play this game? Fine. I can wait here for the rest of eternity if I have to."

Hours passed. The two of them stood across from each other, waiting for the other person to give in. Sans was exhausted, but the only thing keeping him awake were his memories of Frisk. Eventually, however, Sans's eyes began to droop. The mental and physical exhaustion from this battle were starting to catch up with him. His eyes were closing.

For a split second, he swore he saw Frisk's smiling face, hand extended for him. He wanted so badly to reach out and grab her hand, to take her to Grillby's, and spend the rest of their lives together. As soon as he had reached out, Frisk faded out of existence like she had every time he killed her. He needed to stay alert.

Suddenly, he felt a knife swing at him. In the nick of time, he woke up and dodged the knife. His hold on Chara must have let go for a split second when he fell asleep.

"Nice try, Chara-" But that was all he could get out. In mid-air, there was no way for Sans to dodge the second knife attack. It slashed through his blue hoodie, cut all the bottles of ketchup he was keeping in his pockets, and struck through his very soul. A splatter of dark, red liquid hit the air as Chara's attack connected with Sans. "So… this is how it ends then…"

Sans felt his connection to reality loosen. His vision was blurry, and it felt as though he was being erased from existence. He lost. The promise he made to Frisk was broken. All this time, he tried so hard to keep Chara from letting loose into the world, but it was no use. He couldn't do anything after all.

"Frisk…" Sans called out into the emptiness. "Frisk… I'll meet you at Grillby's. I'll order you whatever you like. My treat." He slumped to the ground. He could barely feel his limbs. "I love you, Frisk."

The skeleton on the ground then faded out of existence.


	31. Chapter 31

Frisk had been dormant inside Chara's mind, but she saw everything that happened. They had reset at least a few hundred times. Every time, she would have to watch Sans go through the pain of murdering her. It was as difficult for her as it was for Sans. She watched the skeleton she loved, her favorite person in the world evaporate into dust. After so many tries, Chara had finally killed Sans. Frisk had no idea that murdering her wouldn't stop Chara. It was too late. She wanted to cry out but had no control over her voice or body. Every fiber of her soul was crying out in pain. Suddenly, what she had seen at Grillby's seemed insignificant compared to losing Sans right in front of her eyes.

"Finally," Chara said. "He was getting to be really fucking annoying. He got us a couple hundred times, didn't he Frisk? That skeleton really does love you… excuse me… _did_."

" _Chara,_ " Frisk spoke to Chara in his mind, trying to hold back tears. " _Why would you do something like this…? Was it really necessary to kill everyone…?_ "

"Oh please, Frisk. You and I both know that this is all just a big game. No one here really matters. No one but us. And we will take over humanity and start anew. Everything in this world must be destroyed."

" _Please… I just… I just want Sans back… I'll do anything Chara… I just want you to bring him back to me…_ "

"Hm? What was that just now? Did you say… _anything?_ " Frisk knew that whatever Chara was going to suggest wasn't going to be easy, but she wanted Sans back more than anything and was willing to do whatever it took. Chara walked Frisk's body to the end of the Judgement Hall, then stopped. "If you really mean it, Frisk… There is only one thing I want from you…"

" _W-What is it…?_ "

"Your soul."

Frisk froze. The only desire in her heart was to bring Sans back. She needed to erase this mistake. Had she not tried to go behind Sans's back, maybe the DT extractor would have worked correctly. She didn't know. All she knew was that her friends and the love of her life were all gone.

In her mind, flashes of her friends appeared before her eyes. Undyne, Alphys, Papyrus, Mettaton, and Sans all appeared before her one by one. And then, one by one, they all vanished from her sight. The only one remaining was Sans. Frisk tried to call out to him in her head, but her voice was muffled. He couldn't hear her. Sans turned around and walked toward another figure: the closer she got, the more defined her features became. Juniper. Frisk wanted to scream. She had been right since the beginning: she wasn't the right person for Sans. She never had been, and she never will be. If selling her soul could bring him back, he could be happy with the kinds of girls he had been with for so long. There was only one option.

" _Take it._ "

"Oh? Are you sure? You really care so much for the one monster that broke your heart after all this time?" Chara laughed. "Humans are so predictable. That's why you're so much fun, Frisk. Now… it's time. Give it to me." Frisk saw her soul pop out from her chest, just like in her nightmares. Only this time, Frisk didn't run away. She willingly brought herself close to Chara, who reached for his knife. "Don't worry Frisk. It'll all be over in a second. Like a visit to the dentist."

Frisk felt her soul collapse.

* * *

Open. Eyes were now open. Something was coming into view. What it was, he was unsure. Trees? Whiteness? He sat up. A line of trees came into view. And a pure white blanket of snow. Snowdin? Couldn't be. The world was gone. He looked down at his fingers. They were intact. Was this what heaven felt like? He wasn't sure. All he knew was that he lost.

"Brother!" He heard his brother's voice call out from behind him. "You're slacking off again! Don't you know a human might come through here? We need to be awake and alert!" This had to have been a dream. He was reliving what it was like to be alive, right? His brother, who had been murdered in cold blood, was standing before him. This had to be a dream. "Get up!" Papyrus dragged Sans up onto his feet, and the world snapped into view.

"Huh?" Sans said. An immense feeling of déjà vu came over him. What was going on? It was like the world had been… reset.

 _Oh no_.

"I can't believe you're sleeping on the job again. This is ridiculous!" Papyrus continued to drone on and on, while Sans was processing what had just happened. He had sworn he died, but there he was, living the same moment that he had been in a few months ago. It had to have been a reset. But why would Chara reset all the way back this far? He had no reason to, unless… "I'm leaving. When I come back, you'd better have your puzzles recalibrated!"

He saw a human figure cut through the blizzard from the path on the other side. Was it really… her? The figure inched closer. A familiar short haircut and blue and purple sweater came into view. His heart jumped. He ran toward the figure, tears in his eyes. He couldn't believe it. The world gave him a second chance to fix everything.

Or maybe, this was his chance to avoid everything that ever happened. If he stopped here, never let Frisk become his friend, they would never fall in love. Both of them would be free from that immense heartbreak they both endured. Was it the best choice for them? He wasn't sure, but regardless, he felt himself turn around to walk away.

"Hi, Sans." The figure that spoke was not Frisk. "Don't tell me… You were gonna walk away from the love of your life? My, how Frisk would cry if she saw this. But wait, technically, she can see this."

"C-Chara…" Sans stopped dead in his tracks. The fight was not over, not by a long shot. He readied his weapons, about to attack him.

"Calm down, skele-boy. I'm not here to fight. Looks like your girlfriend managed to grant you a second chance. You should be grateful!"

"What did you do to her, Chara."

"I didn't do anything. I merely offered her the chance to save you." Chara walked around Sans in a circle with a smug look on his face. "She offered me her soul in exchange for bringing you back to life. Such a simple trade, really. She really did value your life over her own. Even after this sacrifice, you're going to turn your back on her? What a shame." Sans shot Chara a dirty look. He had just gotten over having to kill the love of his life hundreds of times and then died himself. Now he was being told Frisk sacrificed herself for his sake? "I see that face, Sans. You don't want to hurt me. Trust me. I may have taken Frisk's soul, but this is still her body. I can still feel her inside my own soul." A wave of jealous hit Sans. He couldn't believe that Frisk had tried to hard to give Chara a happy ending, when it was quite obvious that he didn't deserve one. "Don't worry, I won't go killed everyone on a genocidal rampage. I do still have Frisk's soul. I'm not in complete control. Her wishes and desires are still very strong inside of me. Her determination is a lot more powerful than I thought!"

"Don't you dare hurt Frisk. I'll come after you. We… We'll find a way to bring her back."

"Stupid skeleton. This is a new timeline. Everyone's minds have been _erased_. No one knows Frisk. No one will help you save this random human. Although, I'm not so sure why your memory hasn't been erased. Quite stumped, actually. But don't worry. Frisk is making sure everyone is safe." Chara shrugged. "I guess I'll have to make my way through the Underground again. Won't you help me Sans?"

"Yeah, right. Like I would ever help you."

"No, I know you won't help me. But I know you'll do everything to protect Frisk. So, you're staying with me." Chara grinned evilly. He knew exactly how to string Sans along. All this time, everything was playing in to Chara's hands. He had no choice but to go along with it for now.

"Fine. I'll go along with your stupid plan. But only because I'm going to watch what you're doing with Frisk's body. Please don't hurt her." Chara began to cackle.

"Oh, don't worry Sans. I've seen how much you lust for this body. I'll take good care of everything."

Sans felt all the rage inside him flare up but kept it inside because he didn't want to hurt Frisk's body.


	32. Chapter 32

Strangely, Chara had been acting very similarly to Frisk. He hadn't tried to kill anyone and was sparing every monster he saw. Frisk's will must still have been so strong within her soul that Chara was still following what she would have done in certain situations. It was like so many events were happening the same way as they did the first time, except no one knew the human as Frisk, they all referred to them as Chara. Sans was the only one acting off book from the original timeline, as he avoided inserting himself into the storyline to keep a close watch on the Chara-Frisk hybrid human.

It was hard to tell whether Frisk was really in Chara's head, since she had sold her soul to him, but events were playing as if Frisk was the one in control. Chara, however, had stated to Sans that he hadn't been hearing Frisk in his head, only that the pieces of her soul that he absorbed were reacting strongly to spending time with the monsters she had befriended. Eventually, Chara had befriended almost everyone in the Underground, just as Frisk would have.

It took a while for Sans to realize all the research he had done on the DT extractor had been erased. There was no way he could start that research from scratch again, as it had taken months before he had even gotten close to creating his prototype chip. The only way he would be able to remotely make it back was to ask for Alphys's help, but in this timeline, Frisk didn't exist, and there was no reason for her to believe there was a human named Frisk possessing Chara that was her friend in another timelines. Just repeating that sentence in his head made Sans believe that it sounded even more ridiculous than it actually was.

Sans stood outside of MTT resort as he did in the first timeline, except this time, he was smoking the dog treat Doggo had given him. The smoke filled his ribs. Although he didn't have any lungs, he felt himself calming down from inhaling the smoke. _I can't believe this_ , Sans said. _Here I am, smoking. What the fuck happened…_ He missed Frisk so much; he was hurting. He was so confused; why was Chara acting like Frisk? He inhaled another huge puff of smoke. There had to be some way to save her, but he was at a loss. No one had memories of the previous timelines except for him. Everyone had befriended Chara and acted as if Chara was the one who had been their friend all this time. Chara had gone on a date with Papyrus, hung out with Undyne, and spent time with Alphys and Mettaton, just as Frisk had in the original timeline. He was extremely conflicted. He knew Frisk was in there somewhere: but would he be able to get her out on his own? Maybe, he should just give up.

"Fancy seeing you here," A human's voice said. Sans looked up. Chara was in front of him, smirking. Although Chara had Frisk's body, his devil-red eyes and rosy cheeks differentiated him from the woman he loved. "What's up, Sans?"

"Don't what's up me." Sans snapped back.

"Aw, come on Sans. I'm just trying to be friends with everyone. Can't you give me a chance?"

"Frisk gave you a chance. You squandered it. You mean nothing to me. Get out of here."

"Oh no you don't. I believe this is the part where you take me on a date to MTT Resort, is it not?"

"Over my dead body."

"Unfortunately, you have no choice. I'm the one in control here, Sans, did you forget that?" Chara was right. He was the one in control of the timelines. No matter what Sans did, all he had to do was reset again and again until he had his way. The existential dread Sans had came back to him all at once. There really was nothing he could do.

"Fine." Sans threw the dog treat to the ground and stomped it out. "Over this way." He motioned to the back alley where he had taken Frisk in the previous timeline.

"Ooh! Shortcuts! Boy, do I love these." Chara said, just to get on Sans's nerves. Sans steeled himself and brought the two of them to the inside of MTT Resort. What would happen next, he had no idea. He readied himself for anything.

"What do you want, Chara?"

"Hm," Chara pondered, rubbing his chin. "You know, I'm not entirely sure. I've taken ahold of Frisk's body and soul, but for some reason, I can't bring myself to harm anyone. It's quite strange really. I've no idea why."

"You're messing with me."

"Actually, I'm not. I always thought that as soon as I took Frisk's soul, I would finally have a human body and soul again and carry out my plans, but for some reason, Frisk's desires are so strong within me even though I can't feel or hear her."

"Because she's amazing. Her will is stronger than yours, and it always will be." Chara began to laugh. "What's so funny?"

"Don't think I don't see right through you Sans. She really was way out of your league."

"Excuse me?" Chara then began to speak about Frisk, saying that if their roles were reversed, and Sans was the one trapped inside another entity, she would have done all she could to try and get him out instead of giving up like he did. A wave of pain went through Sans. Chara was right: there was a lot more things he could have tried for her, but he was too depressed to even think it would work. He had all but given up.

"If she saw you now, she'd be disappointed."

"What do you want from me, Chara? Here to rub in my face all the mistakes I've made and how much I don't deserve someone like Frisk? Well newsflash: you don't need to do all that because I'm already doing that to myself. So, whatever it is you're going to do, just do it, and get it over with. Destroy the world. Kill all the humans, I don't even care. Nothing matters to me anymore because Frisk is gone. That's the truth." Sans was shaking. It took so long for him to admit to himself that he really had given up and was ready to accept living in a world without Frisk or losing the entire Underground.

"I don't know what she ever saw in you. You're a sad, pathetic skeleton. The whole world comes back, and you sit around and mope? Not even trying to find a way to bring her back?"

"Even if I did bring her back, she would never forgive me. Not after the last thing she saw before I lost her." Sans thought back to the misunderstanding. Frisk had seen Juniper kissing Sans. He knew that if he were to try and explain himself, tell her that it meant nothing, that she wouldn't believe him. Frisk probably would have broken up with him regardless. The truth was, he was also afraid to bring her back because they never had a chance to talk about what happened that day. Maybe he would rather never meet her at all than go through that pain.

"You really are selfish, Sans. Are you letting that prevent you from trying to find a way to bring her back?"

"What's it to you, anyway? You have what you want. Why are you hounding me for not trying hard enough to bring Frisk back? Isn't that the opposite of what you want?"

"I don't know, honestly. Sometimes a lot of the things I do don't feel like my own will. But I'm not going to complain, since I have a human body and soul again." Chara got up and started to walk away. "You've got the bill, right? Thanks, Sans, you're such a darling."

"What are you gonna do now," Sans said. "Where else is there for you to go…?"

"I figured, I'm just going to kill Asgore and take his soul. Then at least I can make it out of here and destroy the humans myself. We'll see. See you later, Sans."

Chara walked away. Sans felt depression hit him more than he ever had in his life. Chara was right. He hadn't been trying to bring Frisk back. He was afraid of what she would say to him when she saw him. But most of all, he was used to feeling like he couldn't do anything that mattered. He tried to bring his mentor back, but after all this time, he still hadn't made any progress. He had tried to kill Chara and he still came back. He tried to love Frisk as much as he could, but he still felt inadequate for her, and still ended up in a situation where she would most likely leave him. He tried to build a DT extractor chip, but he hadn't been able to alleviate Frisk's pain. Even if he tried to bring Frisk back, he probably would end up not being able to do anything. Nothing he did mattered. All he could do now was watch everything unfold from afar, as he always did. He knew Frisk would be disappointed, but it was nothing compared to the constant feeling of disappointment and existential dread.


	33. Chapter 33

Sans had given up. Soon, Chara would walk through the Judgement Hall, he would deliver his judgement, and Chara/Frisk would leave the Underground by taking Asgore's soul. It reminded Sans of the first time he met Frisk; how he had fallen in love with her and was resigned to say goodbye to her at that point in time so he could just get over her and forget about her. He found himself wishing she had said goodbye to her then.

Chara started to walk through the Judgement Hall, except this time, there was no sense of urgency or dread. Sans wasn't there to fight anymore. He was just there to deliver judgement and let Chara move on, so he could try and move on himself. He looked at Chara, and Chara looked back at him. The two of them didn't speak for a few moments. Strangely, Chara had not accumulated any EXP or LOVE. Sans was confused.

"You… never accumulated EXP or LOVE. Why is that?" Chara explained that Frisk's will seemed to be stronger than he thought. Every time he was about to hurt someone, something in his soul pulled him away and forced him to spare the monster instead. "You're messing with me."

"I keep telling you, Sans. She's still here. No matter what I want to do, her will seems to overpower mine." She _was_ still in there. But he was so afraid. Afraid of losing her again if he brought her back, and afraid of his own feelings.

"If you're really in there, Frisk…" Sans said. "You'll do the right thing. I know it." He shut his eyes. He wasn't sure if Frisk really was in there or not, but he needed to let go, and say goodbye to her, even if she wasn't able to hear him. "Goodbye, Frisk. I… I love you." He was crying. This really was his last goodbye. This time, she wouldn't be able to surface to say goodbye back. He couldn't even apologize to her for everything: for what had happened between them, for being a sub-par boyfriend, and for giving up on her. He wasn't sure if she would ever forgive him anyway for either of those things.

Chara stood there, emotion gone from his face. Although Sans had begun to break down in front of him, it was like nothing phased him. He simply continued walking past the weeping skeleton.

"Hey, Sans," Chara said. "She cares about you a lot."

Chara walked away, Frisk's silhouette out of sight. It would be the last time he saw that silhouette. The figure disappeared.

* * *

It was like she was sleeping. She couldn't tell if she was experiencing everything again, or what really had happened to her soul, but her grip on reality was very loose. The feeling was similar to waking up in the morning, trying to remember the dream she had the night before, and then forgetting about it instantly. This was the constant feeling Frisk had right after she had sold her soul to Chara. She kept seeing flashes of what happened before. It was a dream-like recollection of how she befriended all the monsters in the Underground, her time spent living among the monsters, and all the time she spent befriending and falling in love with Sans.

Her memories of Sans were the only thing keeping her tethered to reality. Every time her memories slipped away, she would think of him and knew which memories ones were real and which ones were fake. She swore she saw flashes of Chara living as though he had been the one befriending all the monsters in the Underground. There were even flashes of Chara's life as the prince of the Underground, with a collection of memories from Asriel, Toriel, and Asgore. The more she suffered in this constant state of questioning herself, the more she thought about how she believed she had made the right decision. As long as everyone she knew was safe, selling her own soul would be worth it. From what it seemed, she believed no one would even remember her anyway, and their souls would be spared from the pain of losing her.

She wasn't sure where she was, but flashes of seeing Sans at the Judgement Hall filled her head. The last time she went to the Judgement Hall, she had killed Asgore twice, but refusing to kill anyone, she had reset instead and gone back to prevent herself from hurting anyone. Those feelings resonated within her, her determination to keep everyone safe and save everyone, were filling her and growing.

On the outside, Chara had made his way to the throne room. He hadn't seen his father in a very long time. Would Asgore recognize Chara? He wasn't sure. He took a breath and stepped into the throne room. It was glowing with beautiful golden flowers, the same golden flowers that had been Chara's favorite when he was alive. He was taken aback. The throne room never looked like this before. For the first time since Chara's awakening, he felt something. Nostalgia and loneliness began to set into his mind.

Asgore was watering the flowers. He had heard someone come up behind him, and then turned around. He saw the face of his son, who had been long gone. Chara figured Asgore didn't know it was him, as Asgore's face changed into one of meeting someone for the first time.

"I'm sorry," Asgore said. "I know you are a human. You just remind me so much of my human son." Chara didn't say a word. He figured he didn't need to. Asgore was the only thing standing between him and freedom. Once he got to the surface, he could finally exterminate humanity and free the monsters as he originally intended. "Look… I know you must have heard… That I need one more human soul to cross the barrier. I wish we could have met in better circumstances." Chara was torn hearing his father's voice. He wanted nothing more than to tell him who he was and bring his family back to the way they used to be.

But he knew that wasn't possible anymore.

They stepped in front of the barrier. Asgore was shaking. Chara was shaking too, but he was able to hide it. Solemnly, both of them drew their weapons, ready to fight a battle neither of them wanted to partake in.

* * *

"Sans…" Sans flipped over in his bed. "Sans… Wake up… I need you…" He started tossing and turning. Even after all this time, he was still hearing her voice in his head. It was so hard to forget her. Getting over Frisk would take a while. He wasn't sure if he would be able to get over her at all.

"Sans!" He bolted awake. Papyrus was standing in front of him. The voice he heard must have been Papyrus's; he must have mistaken it for Frisk in his head. "Hurry, brother, we need to go!"

"Huh…?" Sans said, rolling back over in his sheets. "Go where…? I'm off today. Leave me alone."

"Please, brother! I have a bad feeling about this. The human has gone to fight Asgore…"

"I know. Now leave me alone. They'll do whatever they have to."

"I'm not leaving without you! I just have a bad feeling about it. We can't let them fight. We just can't!" At first, Sans wanted to roll back over, tell Papyrus to fuck off, and sulk in his sheets again, but for some reason, he felt as though he couldn't. He knew Frisk: she would never have wanted to fight Asgore. If she had killed Asgore, even if it wasn't in her control, she would never forgive herself. Something inside of him made him get up and follow Papyrus.

"Fine. We'll go. Lead the way."

Papyrus and Sans set off toward the end of the Underground. Sans had an uneasy feeling about this.


	34. Chapter 34

"Stop the fight!" Someone yelled. Chara was all but ready to attack his father, but someone had stopped the fight by hurling a magic attack at Asgore. It was Toriel.

"What a horrible creature." Toriel said. Chara was taken aback. Both of his parents were standing right in front of him. It was such a bittersweet feeling.

One by one, all the monsters in the Underground started showing up to stop the fight. Chara was frozen by all the friendships that were resonating in that room. In that moment, he felt something inside him resonate.

 _My… my friends…_ _They're… all here…_

Chara felt the connection to Frisk's body loosen. He struggled to keep control of Frisk's soul. He had finally seen his parents again and wanted to hug them one more time, but his hold was loosening. Anger and rage had left him. All he wanted was to see them one more time and tell them how much he missed them. His vision was fading.

Frisk opened her eyes.

All her friends were standing between her and the king. She wasn't sure what had happened. The last memory she had was of selling her soul to Chara, was she just imagining this?

"Please don't fight each other!" Different monsters were screaming. Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Toriel, and Mettaton all stood between her and Asgore. Was she about to fight the king?

She looked in front of her. Sans was standing there, arms stretched out, ready to protect her. She felt tears well up in her eyes. It had to be a dream. She reached out to grab Sans.

Suddenly, a large string of vines shot out at everyone. Frisk jumped up. She felt her own body again for the first time. Her hands were clammy, her body was shaking, and there were tears streaming down her face. She felt scared. This wasn't a dream: this was real. All her friends were about to be killed.

"No!" Frisk screamed. Suddenly, a golden flower appeared before her, the same one who had threatened her at the beginning of her journey.

"You're so stupid." Flowey said. "I've been watching everything that happened. Didn't I tell you? Caring about people will only bring you pain. The only way to survive in this world… is to kill everyone! Flowey began to absorb all the human and monster souls. There was a huge flash of light. Frisk couldn't see anything. She held her arm out in front of her to block the white light that blinded her eyes.

In front of her, a young goat monster stood before her. Something in her heart resonated. He seemed so familiar, but where had she seen him before? He turned around, face smiling. This was Flowey? She was so confused. Suddenly, he transformed into a much older version of himself. She knew exactly who this was.

Asriel Dreemurr.

He began to attack her, hurling magical attacks and lasers at her. It took her a bit to get used to being back in her own body. How long had it been since she sold her soul to Chara? Days? Weeks? She didn't know. Being back in her own body felt foreign to her, but she didn't have time to focus on that now. Asriel was attacking her left and right. She needed to focus. All her friends were in trouble, and she was the only one who could save them.

She felt something resonating. Her friends were all still there, regardless of being absorbed into Asriel's soul. She called out to each one of her friends. Alphys, Undyne, Papyrus, Toriel, and Asgore's souls all appeared before her. She screamed each of their names, reminding them of all the times they had had together. One by one, she was able to pull their souls out of Asriel. They had even remembered who she was.

"Frisk!" Papyrus said. "Oh my god… How could I forget you? I am such an awful friend… I am sorry Frisk!" Frisk told Papyrus it was okay and that it was her fault everyone forgot her in the first place. She greeted each one of her friends, who had suddenly remembered who she was. Papyrus tapped Frisk on the shoulder. "Frisk… There's one more soul you need to save." She knew exactly who she needed to save next. She saved the best for last. She called out to him.

"Sans…!" Sans's lost soul appeared before her. His face was scrambled and his expressed looked dejected. She had never seen Sans like this before. Surely, he must have forgotten about her too.

" _Frisk…_ " Sans's soul said. " _Why are you here. I was just about to forget about you and move on with my life. Nothing I do matters. I can't save you. I can't save anyone_." She tried to run toward him, but it seemed like his soul moved away with every step he took.

"Sans… Sans listen to me! It's me, Frisk! I'm here for you… I know you forgot me, but I'm here."

" _I never forgot you. Even when the timeline reset, my memories of you are as strong as ever. Remembering you is painful. I'd rather have forgotten you, Frisk. I caused you too much pain, and now this is causing me pain. Don't try and save me. Just give up. I did._ "

"I would never give up on you, bonehead. You're the most important person in my life. I'll be damned if I ever let you give in to your existential dread!" She continued to run after him, avoiding every bone attack he threw at her. The closer she got to him, the more clearly she could see his face. Tears.

" _Please, Frisk… Let me go. I don't deserve you. You're way too good for me. You'd be much happier with someone else than me. I'm 100% sure of that. Even if you did come back… You would just leave me anyway; because of what you saw at Grillby's the last time I saw you._ "

"Sans, I don't care about that anymore, please just listen to me, come back! I'm here!"

" _You'd never believe me anyway. I didn't kiss that bird, she forced herself on me. Seeing your face that day was the worst thing I've ever experienced in my life. I just want you to leave me alone and forget about us. Let me forget you in peace._ "

"Sans, I could never. I would never do that to you. You hear me, bonehead? I don't care if you've given up on me. I don't care about that stupid Grillby's incident. I just want to apologize for hiding everything from you. I never should have tried to create that chip behind your back. I never should have made you promise to kill me. It was too much for you Sans. I'm sorry. I love you, Sans. Please, hear me…" Sans's soul finally stopped running away. As Frisk approached, his face became clearer and clearer. Both of them had tears streaming down their face.

"Frisk… Is it really you? Are you really here?" Sans held his right hand up to Frisk's face. Frisk held Sans's hand up to her face. She felt so warm and loving.

"Yes, Sans… It's me."

"I can't do this again. I can't lose you, Frisk."

"You won't have to lose me Sans, I promise. I'm here to stay. My only purpose is to be with you, to save you."

"I… I don't deserve your love. I gave up on you. You must hate me for that."

"I could never hate you, Sans. I fell in love with you. No matter what happens, I will always love you. Don't you remember the promise you made me before all this happened?"

"I will always keep that promise."

"Good." Frisk kissed Sans. It seemed like it had been a million years since Sans got to taste those lips again. It felt so good; he never wanted to break free of the kiss for fear of losing her again. "You have to help me, Sans. There are two more people I need to save."

"What? Who?"


	35. Chapter 35

"No," Asriel cried out. "Stop it. What are you doing!"

Frisk stood in front of the God of hyperdeath. She had only re-entered the world a few moments ago, but she knew what needed to be done. There were two more people she needed to save. Here she was, about to work on saving the first. She continued to call out to him.

"Stop it," Asriel cried out again, hurling attacks at Frisk over and over. "You can't save me. I'm beyond saving. Nothing can be done for me."

"That's wrong," Frisk said. "Everyone deserves a chance to be saved. Even the worst of people." Something resonated in Frisk's soul again. Suddenly, she knew what had to be done. Although she was again at risk for losing herself, she did it anyway.

She called out to Chara.

Chara immediately rushed to the surface of Frisk's consciousness, but he didn't take over. Frisk's determination to save the both of them was so strong that she was able to retain complete control over herself while calling out to Chara.

 _"Huh…?_ " Chara spoke through Frisk. " _Asriel… What… What are you doing here…?_ "

"Ch-Chara?" Asriel lowered himself. He felt tears welling up in his eyes. "Is it really you…?"

" _It is me…_ "

"What happened to us…?" Chara went over all the things he had done throughout the course of his regaining consciousness in Frisk's mind. He told Asriel all about how he wanted to continue to carry out the plan he had started so long ago, but ended up nearly destroying the whole world and resetting the timeline. Tears ran down both Chara and Asriel's eyes as they were reunited with their only sibling. "Look at us Chara… Look what we turned out to be…"

Something resonated within Chara again. Technically, Frisk's soul still belonged to him. Feelings of sadness and loneliness rushed to the surface. He remembered what it felt like to sit with his family and spend time with them. He remembered what it was like to spend time with his brother, and how Asriel had always told Chara of the hopes and dreams he had for the Underground once they rose to the throne together. Chara felt his brother's caring toward him. How long had it been since they had last seen each other? They didn't know.

He then felt bitterness and anger toward the humans who treated him so horribly.

"I have to get in there," Sans said, rushing toward the Dreemurr brothers. He sensed Chara's change in demeanor. "Frisk might get hurt. I have to go get her." As soon as Sans took one step, however, Papyrus grabbed his brother's shoulder, and gave him a look signaling it wasn't his place to intervene. As much as he wanted to, Sans knew Papyrus was right. He couldn't interrupt these brothers reuniting. Looking up at Papyrus, he felt Frisk's influence on him. Chara and Asriel deserved a happy ending too. He closed his fist, imagining what it must feel like if him and Papyrus had gone through the same thing.

"Trust Frisk, Sans." Papyrus said. Paps was right. So many issues could have been avoided had Sans only trusted Frisk. His fist was still clenched. He thought of all the arguments they had and their boiling point that caused Frisk to hide her ideas from him. The pain of losing her was too much for him, and he didn't want to have to endure that again. Something was keeping him from intervening. He knew Frisk would be ok in the end, even though he didn't have concrete proof. He believed in her determination.

" _Asriel…_ " Chara's voice echoed through the barrier. " _You can't stop me. I'm going to bust through the barrier and kill them all. All the humans will be gone, and I can avenge you and the rest of the monsters. Then I can finally rest in peace._ "

"Chara, please," Frisk's voice cut through the darkness as well. "I… I want you both to have a happy ending. I tried last time and I failed for you. Haven't you realized by now? Not everything can be solved with violence."

" _Not everything can be solved by being kind either._ "

"Asriel cares about you. He always has and he always will, regardless of whatever form he takes."

" _You don't even know my brother; how can you try and say shit like that to me?_ " Asriel made a face, signaling his own sadness.

"I see it in your memories, Chara. The reason he stopped both of you from attacking the humans… It's because he knew violence wasn't the way to ease your pain."

"She's right," Asriel said. "I did stop both of us back then. I felt your pain at that moment in time, your rage, your anger against all of humanity. Your determination to exterminate humankind was so strong. I couldn't let you do that, Chara. I'd be a terrible brother if I let you do that. Besides, we ended up back together again, didn't we?"

Chara froze. He was struck by the sudden rush of feelings and Frisk's determination overpowering his. He remembered what it was like to share that body with Asriel, and how no determination in the world could have overcome Asriel's wish not to harm anyone and protect his brother's conscience.

" _Stop it,_ " Chara said. " _No, you can't do this to me. I'm supposed to carry out my plan… I'm supposed to avenge the Dreemurr family… I… Was supposed to succeed…_ " Chara fell to his knees and burst into tears. He screamed. A white light shot out from Frisk's body. Startled, Sans started to run up to the light, but was blinded by how bright the beams were. Anything could have been happening at that point. The light cleared.

Frisk was finally in control of her own body again. Above her, was Chara's ghostly figure, still crying from earlier. Asriel was standing in front of him, no longer in his hyperdeath form. Instead, he looked like a small goat monster, wearing the same sweater as Chara.

"You don't have to hurt anymore, Chara," Frisk said, taking both of his hands in hers. "Because Asriel has always been thinking about you, every single day. Even when he was a flower, he thought of you. He mistook me for you, and that's evidence of how strong your bond is. Even in his post-death, soulless form, you never left his mind. That's something not everyone can say that they have."

Sans winced hearing this. Although the timeline had reset, he still never forgot about Frisk. Selfishly, he had wanted to erase all thoughts of her to protect his mind, when he should have been thinking about her and trying harder to find a way to bring her back. He felt more ashamed than ever before.

"Chara," Asriel said. "Let's go home." He reached his hand out. Chara ran into his brother's arms, still crying. "We can see mom and dad one more time before we leave."

"I'm…" Chara was hiccupping between sobs. He could barely get any words out. "I'm so sorry… I'm sorry Asriel… I shouldn't have tried that plan in the first place. It was a mistake. And instead of trying to correct it, I ended up making things worse." He turned to Frisk. "Frisk… I'm… I'm so sorry about what I did to you…" He began to sob harder. "I was so consumed by my thoughts of revenge and murder that I was trying to use you this whole time. Honestly… I really started to like you Frisk. You showed me mercy and kindness even though I was trying to take you over. I ruined your friend's memories of you. You never gave up on me. Even now you helped me try and get my happy ending. I found it. All I needed was my big brother. So, thank you."

Frisk started to open her mouth to say you're welcome to Chara, but he stopped her with a kiss. Sans immediately felt a huge tinge of jealousy overcome him.

"Hey!" Sans said. "Fucking smooch on someone who doesn't have a boyfriend!" Chara started laughing.

"Sorry, Sans. I just wanted to kiss a girl at least once before I finally passed on. Thank you for everything, Frisk. Goodbye."

Hand in hand, Asriel and Chara started to emit a huge beam of white light. It blinded everyone again.

The monster souls were being returned to their bodies.


	36. Chapter 36 END

The barrier was destroyed.

Frisk opened her eyes. She was standing on the edge of a cliff, the sun in her view. She had missed the sun. How long had it been since all this happened? With the time reset, she didn't know. She quickly realized, however, that everyone had gotten their memories back about her. Asriel and Chara had fixed the timeline together and restored everyone's memories of their dear friend, Frisk. Everything ran through her head: Chara, Asriel, Undyne, Alphys, Asgore, Toriel, Papyrus, Sans…

But she didn't see Sans anywhere. Where could he have gone?

The rest of her friends stood atop the cliff, admiring the sun. They had never seen the sun before, she realized. The warmth hit her face and filled her with a nostalgic feeling of love and hope. Papyrus had eagerly gone off to explore the world, with Undyne following closely behind him. Alphys had followed as well, leaving an awkward exchange between Asgore and Toriel. Awkwardly, Asgore ran off as well, leaving Toriel to stand at the cliff for a few moments before she headed off to explore the surface as well. She turned around. There Sans was, watching the sun from afar, by himself, instead of with the rest of the group. She approached him. The rest of the group had gone off to explore the surface, leaving only Frisk and Sans at the top of the cliff.

Sans was afraid to speak with Frisk, as the last time they had seen each other was right after Juniper kissed him and she stormed off, believing that he had cheated on her. How was he supposed to explain to her that he had not been cheating on her? Regardless, Sans was more ashamed at how he had given up seeing her in the alternate timeline and genuinely wished he had never met her to avoid feeling pain.

"It's beautiful, isn't it." Frisk said, taking a seat next to where Sans was standing. "I bet you missed the sun."

"I did." Sans said, taking a seat next to Frisk. They didn't speak for a moment, admiring the warmth and light of the sun that both of them hadn't seen in so long. Frisk inched over to Sans, putting her head on his shoulder. He kissed her forehead and pulled her into a loving embrace. He was afraid he would never get to hold her again. "Uh… Listen Frisk… About everything…" Frisk cut Sans off by pulling him into a passionate, hungry kiss. It had been so long since they had a moment to breathe together. Sans was still riddled with guilt, but figured if Frisk initiated it, it was okay to continue to kiss her. After a few moments, Frisk pulled away from him.

"I think we have a lot to talk about," Frisk said, lowering her head. "A lot has happened in the past few… well… timelines…"

"I… I have so much I want to say but I don't even know where to begin." Frisk smiled at him. Her smile melted his nonexistent insides. He wanted to grab her and kiss her again, but knew it wasn't the time.

"Then start from the beginning. Tell me what's on your mind."

Sans began to speak about all the emotions he had been holding in. He started from the beginning, like she requested. In the beginning, before he had met her, he was resolved to let the world carry him along and not care about anything he was doing because he felt as though nothing mattered in the end. He was pulling pranks on people, slacking off on all his responsibilities, and even sleeping around with women to pass the time. He had been so depressed over losing his mentor and his failure to even make one stride toward bringing him back that he was all but ready to end everything. Realizing the timeline would reset and he would just come back anyway, he realized even suicide wasn't able to end his suffering. Thus, he resigned himself to be a lazy skeleton who filled up his boring life with fleeting events. The days would pass, and everything would go on the same as usual. He started picking up women in an attempt to feel some sort of satisfaction in life. At first, the meaningless hook ups filled the hole in his soul, but only for a little while. He began using women as a means to entertain himself without thinking about the consequences.

When he met Toriel through the door to the ruins, he felt like he finally had someone he could talk to. For years, he would stand outside the door, sharing puns back and forth with her. He then started talking to her about more things, like Papyrus and how his life was going. After every reset, however, she would forget whatever he had told him. That helped relieve his issues for a while, knowing that whatever he said to Toriel would not be remembered in the next timeline. However, with everything else, it got old quickly.

He then had made that promise to Toriel about protecting the humans that fell into the ruins. It stimulated his interest, having to protect humans, so he accepted Toriel's promise even though he hated promises. One by one, the humans fell down, and he watched them from afar. It was entertaining watching them to see where they had gone, but he then realized how every human had been the same; only looking out for themselves. He got bored with the promise again.

As soon as he had met Frisk, however, there was a feeling inside him that he had never felt before. He had never been in a serious relationship before he met her and thought that he was feeling a passing attraction. For weeks, he tried to get over Frisk as she was going through the Underground but kept seeing her kind soul and friendships resonate throughout the entire Underground. He had been falling in love with her. He thought, however, that she would leave him soon to get back to the surface, but for the first time in his life, everything turned out the way he wanted it to. They had moved in together, started dating, and even were building their lives together. He never wanted it to end.

Pressed with adversity, upon Chara's possession and Juniper's meddling in their relationship, Sans grew ashamed of the way he handled everything. He started to try and control Frisk out of fear of losing her and that caused her to build a prototype without Sans even knowing. He blamed himself for breaking Frisk's trust in him. Even when the timeline reset, he became more depressed than he ever had been before and failed to even try and bring her back when Chara was possessing her.

"I had seen it so many times before Frisk," Sans said, closing his fist and wincing. "The last time I had tried to bring someone back, it was a failure. So, I thought, why should I even try? I'm a failure at trying to bring back everyone I love. I knew you would be disappointed in me for giving up on you. And… I understand if you want… to leave me." The words hurt him even coming out of his mouth. He had accepted it long ago: that Frisk was way too good for him and that she would be happier with someone else. Here he was, letting her go, trusting that she would do what was best for her, regardless of what turned out in the end.

He was ready to say goodbye.

Frisk stayed silent for a few moments, scaring Sans. Was she really considering breaking up with him? He wasn't surprised, as he assumed that she would as soon as the Asriel/Chara event was over, but it still hurt seeing that it might happen at that very moment.

"Ever since I met you, Sans, I've always admired you. Always. You were my favorite monster from the moment I stepped outside the ruins. You're laid-back, intelligent, and don't really care what others think. I always sensed this sadness in you. Like you were trying to mask something really traumatic and heavy in your life by doing all of these things. I really respected you for the way you handle all the pain in your life. And… Of course I noticed the type of girls you had been with before, but I never thought any less of you because of it. I didn't hate you or not want to be with you because you were a womanizer. I mostly thought of myself as the one that was inadequate for you. I'm not hot, I don't have much experience, and I'm certainly not the ditzy type. I started to fall for you, but was always held back by the fact that I was so different from the other girls you had been with that I must have been a mistake. I was always afraid I wasn't going to be enough for you. And then… I saw you with that bird. That bird who had been harassing me at Grillby's for a few weeks. The moment I walked in, I saw her kissing you. My whole world felt like it was turned upside down. I blamed myself so much in that moment. I figured, I had angered you so much that you went back to Grillby's to go find a girl that was more suitable for you. I blamed myself for what I saw that day, and I let Chara take control of me because I didn't care anymore. I was so angry and upset, but mostly at myself. I always knew I wasn't enough for you, and I guess seeing that confirmed it." Frisk was in pain recollecting the story. She didn't blame Sans for what she saw. In her mind, she was also willing to let Sans go to find someone else he would be happier with.

"Will you let me explain myself?" Sans said. "I just… I don't expect you to believe me. But I want you to hear me out anyway." Frisk nodded. She wanted all their feelings out in front of them. Sans took a breath. He explained to Frisk that Juniper had been hanging out at Grillby's the week before everything happened, and that she was being nice to him and keeping him company. He had no idea that she was harassing Frisk nor had any intention of being anything other than friends with her. The day that Sans stormed out of the laboratory, he did so because he was about to lose control of his powers and wanted to protect Alphys and Frisk from himself. He was calming down at Grillby's, thinking of what he was going to say to Frisk when they saw each other again. Of course, that never happened. Juniper had grabbed Sans's face out of nowhere and started kissing him, presumably because she saw Frisk in the doorway and wanted to harass her. It was all beginning to make sense: Juniper wanted to make Frisk's life miserable by getting close to Sans. He felt disgusted that he let her use him to hurt the person he loved the most. "So… That's the true story. I swear. You don't have to believe me but… That's my side." Sans winced. He had a feeling Frisk didn't believe him at all, and that the end of their relationship was coming soon.

"Sans…" Frisk said. "I… I believe you." Sans was shocked. Was she telling the truth? Did she really believe everything he said? "Juniper had been trying to harass me for a few weeks… It makes sense now. The first time I talked to her, she kept telling me about how cute you were and that she wanted me to introduce her to you. I stomped away and told her to go meet you herself. And I guess she did that."

"I'm so relieved. I thought for sure you would think im a dirty, cheating womanizer." There was silence between them again. "Frisk… I'm still not the best match for you. I'm scared to say this and it's going to be painful for me, but… If you want to end it with me…"

"Sans, I… I feel like I'm not the best match for you too… But…" Frisk began to cry. Was this it? Was it a breakup that was about to happen?

"I want this to be… clean if we do end up breaking up… So… I'm gonna count to three… And you say what you want, ok? I'll say what I want too. Whatever happens… We'll talk about it…" Frisk's heart felt like it was about to stop. This was the end for them, she already knew it. "One…"

"Two…"

"Three…"

" _I want to stay with you forever_." Both of them had said the same exact phrase at the same exact time without prompting. Frisk started laughing through her tears, causing Sans to burst out laughing as well. Tears of joy and happiness fell from both of their faces.

"We're stupid, aren't we?" Frisk said, smiling.

"Yes, we are. Idiot, you know I'm with you specifically because you're _not_ like the other crazy girls I've been with. You mean something to me."

"I'm an idiot? How about you? I've told you multiple times already that I think you're the best possible match I could ever have."

"I'm sorry I doubted our love. It's scary, Frisk, feeling like you're not the one for the person you love."

"I know the feeling, Sans. But we can make it through if we have each other. I know that for a fact."

"Well then," Sans said, pulling Frisk up from the ground. "Now that we have a fresh start, and that we still love each other more than anything, let's go explore the surface. You'll have to show me where you're from."

"And you'll have to show me where you lived on the surface during your time here." Sans kissed Frisk's hand and pulled her toward the sunset. "Sans?"

"Yes, my love?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The two walked out into the surface, ready to begin their new life together on the surface.

[END].

* * *

Hello! I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to read my first completed fanfiction and the longest one I've ever written. I appreciate every single one of you that has favorited, followed, written a review, and read through any part of my fanfic! Although this story has come to a close, more stories are out there, and I will be trying my best to make new stories in other fandoms in the future. For now, thanks again for giving your time on my story and I hope you have a wonderful day :)

-idolR21


End file.
